


Naturally Lost in the Unnatural

by sammi273



Series: Naturally Unnatural [2]
Category: One Direction (Band), Supernatural
Genre: Babies, Dark Stuff, Death, F/M, M/M, Mpreg-ish, Smut, This is the sequel!, Violence, bottom!Louis, girl!Louis for like a chapter, moreso 1D, really weird, supernatural-ish, uhm yeah!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2018-08-13 12:50:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7977364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammi273/pseuds/sammi273
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens after that bomb goes off?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One: Post-Bombing

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT AN!
> 
> Why hello there people! Yes, I am back with an update!
> 
> This is the sequel to Naturally Unnatural. This book is separated into parts, four of them to be exact, and I'll go over what happened at the end of the part, in case you want to skip a particular one for whatever reason or you forgot what happened.
> 
> I will update every other week on Tuesday for now and will inform you if I plan on doing otherwise.
> 
> There is a playlist for this fanfic on Spotify titled Naturally Unnatural 2 and my username is as always sammi273.
> 
> And so, what you've all been waiting for, the Question of the Day!
> 
> QoTD: what did you do over the summer?
> 
> I traveled out if the country for the first time with some of my family. We went to Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Germany, in that order. It. Was. Amazing! I wrote a ton for this fanfic, so I'm super excited to finally be updating!
> 
> Enjoy!

After the explosion I thought that everything had ended; including my own life.

I was crippled.

I was broken.

I thought that I wouldn't be able to adjust to my new life, there were times when I didn't even want to attempt it.

But then... well... let's just say that a lot has happened since then.

Many of you must be confused right now, so how about I just start at the beginning when I woke up in that hospital a year and a half ago.

***

I knew that I was surrounded in light, however I didn't dare open my eyes and allow it to flood my sight. Truth be told, I didn't know where I was. All I was able to remember was Harry calling me on my cell phone.

What was he even calling for?

I really can't remember.

Instead of focusing on remembering, I chose to try and focus on my surroundings.

There was an intense antiseptic smell that over powered any other smell in the room, that is if there were any other scents present.

As far as sound goes, all I was able to hear was faint murmuring, though it wasn't close to me so I decided not to focus on it. What I was able to hear was a steady and constant beeping noise and the tell tale melodic songs from chirping birds.

Other than that, there weren't any other sound, it was absolutely silent and that was what filled me with panic.  
I was able to hear the faint beeping continuing on, only it began to excel, beeping faster. That was when I heard a familiar voice.

"Louis, you're okay calm down." It was Harry, I'm sure of it from the deepness of the voice and the urgency in his voice.

That was when I opened my eyes but only slightly.

"H-Har?" I asked, confused as to why he'd be here with me.

"You're in the hospital Lou. You're good. You're safe." He assured me, holding my hand carefully which was bandaged up.

"Wha' happened?" I asked, trying to sit up. However, I was horrified to find that I couldn't bend my knees up to my chest like I wanted to. "Har what's wrong with me- I... I can't move. Har wha' happened to me?!" I started to panic even more.

"Fuck," Harry mumbled. "You're okay, I promise. Just hold still a moment." Harry said calmly, but even I was able to tell that he was starting to lose it slightly.

"I don' understan' what's going on."

"You're in a hospital Lou. There was an explosion and you barely made it out alive." Harry informed me softly.

"Where's Ed?" I asked, noticing that only Harry and I were in the room.

"He couldn't make it, Lou. William is sick so he said that you two can Skype later. He has important news to tell you apparently."

"Can we Skype now then?" I asked.

"No not now, but you can't call him if you're more calm."

"But I am calm Har." I tried to convince him, however my attempts were in vain.

"You aren't calm until a doctor or nurse says that you are." Harry said then tacked on at the end, "great job with trying to convince me though."

"No one else came to see me?" I asked, somewhat upset, because I mean wouldn't you be upset if only one person went to see you in the hospital after you've been blown up?

"Simon was going to, but he was swamped with work. So yeah there's only me right now." Harry answered nonchalantly so I wasn't able to tell what he was really feeling.

"And you're sure you want to be here?" I asked in confirmation.

"Deadly," Harry said, a sort of seriousness in his bright green eyes.

"Okay then," I said quietly while looking down and taking a deep calming breath. "Can I speak to Ed now?"

Harry smiled at me warmly, "I don't see why not. Here's your phone. It miraculously managed to survive the explosion."

***

"What do you mean you can't tell me why?"

"Louis, you're alive and that's a miracle in and of itself. I couldn't even begin to get into the mechanics of it and-"

I cut him off right there, "I don't care. It's my body and I deserve to know what you did to it."

"Yeah but I healed you through my own ability therefore I don't need to tell you anything."

"Your own- what do you even mean by that? How's that even possible?" I asked, hoping that he didn't do anything illegal or something.

Harry was silent, though I was still able to hear its message clearly as if he yelled it with a megaphone. I understood that it was something that I wouldn't be able to understand, even if I tried.

However, Harry and I both knew that I would leave it for now, but I definitely wouldn't forget it forever.

***

"I'm the one in a wheelchair right now probably for the rest of my life. All you're telling me is that you're the reason why I'm still alive today. I want to know why I'm still alive, or at least how. I mean you could have done something illegal to my body without me knowing! How fair would it be for me not to know!? I just want to know why I'm in a wheelchair instead of being dead in a bomb explosion." By the last sentence I was nearly in tears.

I was tired of being in a wheelchair and I wanted out.

I want to be dead instead of living this cruel life.

I can't defend myself like this when Harry's out and I'm completely useless now when it comes to running errands.

I'll never see my sister again and I certainly won't be able to bring justice to my dead father.

I just want my old life back where I at least had a chance at doing something.

"Louis I can't tell-"

"That's bull shit!" I yelled at him, completely pissed off.

Harry sighed, "I told you this already, but I'm a hunter and there's a lot of other people who hunt monsters like me. I have special powers to some degree that allowed me to heal you." He answered truthfully from what I could tell.

"Okay," I said simply. "Was that so difficult?"

"Yes it was. Now you have to be careful as to what you tell other people and how you take this information. There are real monsters out there, and they aren't always the creature kind either."


	2. Part One: Outside the Restricting Box

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey there! I forgot how long two weeks could feel like. Its so hard for me to not update earlier! Anyway, not much to say on my part, so I guess that it's time for the question of the day!
> 
> QOTD: if you go to school, have you started yet? If so, how's it going? If not, are you happy to not be in schol?
> 
> I have started school, its my junior year of high school. It's interesting, trying to remain optimistic, but thats quite difficult to do.
> 
> Enough of my complaints, enjoy the update!

"Come on, get up sleepy head." I heard Zayn say, and not in a very nice way either.

Grumbling, I sat up, knowing that he'd probably get pissed off if I didn't. "Yeah okay, I'm up." I mumbled, though my eyes were still closed. I hated opening my eyes and knowing that all I'd see is darkness.

"Get up asshole," Zayn said with a considerably less amount of patience than what he had before. I yelped as he threw a metal object at me that hit me square in the chest; though it was more out of surprise than anything else.

"Okay you prick." I opened my eyes and threw back his gun. If this were earlier in the year I would have bitched about how it could have gone off. However, now that this has become our usual routine, I didn't even bother.

"Quit with the name calling."

"Well you started it first," I rolled my eyes, and got up.

"Yeah yeah, hurry up before the roaches eat your breakfast," Zayn got up as well, taking his shirt off with his back facing me, but I heard it more than I saw since it's so damn dark. "I have a hunt for us to go on today so I /really/ suggest you hurry."

Groaning, I managed to drag myself out of the mass of blankets and pillows that were an excuse for a bed. Even though I've been here for several (nearly six) months, Zayn has yet to give me a permanent bed for sleeping. I guess that he just can't accept the fact that I'm going to be living here until he gives me the boot.

Quickly changing into my clothes for the day I also prepared my bag with the appropriate weapons that I knew we'd probably need.

Already knowing where every square inch of the floorboards lead to, I got up barefooted. Carefully, I avoided the nail that I knew was sticking out from in between the floorboards and grabbed from a plate of bread that I knew was stale and an apple that was overly ripened and bruised. Without complaining, I ate the food provided and downed it with a cup of water from the water bucket.

The first couple of months I began to live here, the food and water would make me sick, but after awhile I guess that I just grew used to it.

The water we have comes from a stream that flows not too far from this cabin, it's also where we bathe and wash our clothes. I found it quite disgusting that we drink from the same water we bathe in, however Zayn explained that all the dirt and stuff gets carried into a lake or ocean or something since it's moving water so we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

I went to walk over to the window and look out the curtains at the stars (something I've grown accustom to doing in the early mornings now) but I tripped over something out of place and immediately toppled over in a frenzy of curses.

"Damn it Zayn!" I yelled out as I threw his boots (what I had tripped over) in the direction of the door.

"Yeah whatever," I heard him mumble from the other room.

Sometimes I seriously hate living with a messy roommate, usually I'm the messy one, but now I can't be anymore.

I sighed as I remember those first moments when I was just starting to get around in my wheelchair. Harry knew that I wouldn't have been able to live on my own and take care of both myself and the house, so he moved in temporarily with me...

"Hey Lou do you want me to sleep in the same room as you at night to make sure you don't roll off the bed?" Harry asked as he carried the wheelchair up the stairs with me in it. I told him numerous times that there is such thing as an elevator, however he didn't listen to me either of those times and insisted on carrying both me and the wheelchair.

"Um I guess that would be fine." I answered, hating the thought of falling out of bed, unable to get up.

"Good then, hand me your key." Harry insisted this time when we reached the top stair and he set me back down, barely even breaking a sweat.

I complied, handing him my key.

The moment he opened the door, his eyes widened. "Louis William Tomlinson!"

"Yes Harry Edward Styles?" I responded sheepishly as I looked towards the stairs, wondering if I'd be able to make a quick break for it.

"How do you live in this dump!? It's such a mess! How did you manage to do all of this behind my back!?" He exclaimed. "There's Dunkin Donut boxes everywhere and tons of unwashed dishes- ugh-" Harry covered his nose with his shirt's front. "And what's that smell!?"

"Do you actually want me to answer that?" I asked.

"No actually, please don't."

"You sleep now, I'll clean," Harry said, his voice sounding quite funny since he was still covering his nose with his shirt. Even still, he guided my wheelchair to my bedroom, a room that he knew all too well. And no, I did not mean that in a sexual way.

"Har, don't you dare clean my mess!" I exclaimed, wiggling in my chair.

He snorted, "and what would you do if I did?"

"I'd- I'd..." I trailed off in thought. What /would/ I have done? "I'd scream until the police comes." I decided.

"Lou, don't you dare even think about it," Harry glared at me as he kneeled down in front of me.

"I will do it if you clean. It's not fair if you clean up all my shit," I reasoned.

Harry pursed his lips in thought, which looked quite attractive might I add. "Okay fine then, I won't." If I hadn't been crippled, I would have jumped five feet in the air as Harry wrapped his strong arms around me. He gently lifted me before setting me down on my bed, "blankets on or off?"

"On," I decided since it was autumn and I wasn't planning on getting sick anytime soon.

"Okay," he simply answered as he picked up my crumpled blankets from the foot of my bed and tucked me in carefully. "Sleep well," Harry murmured to me as he moved my wheelchair out of the way and walked out, closing the door behind him.

When I woke up to a clean apartment and a guilty Harry two hours later, I licked my chapped lips and opted not to scream bloody murder. Instead, I shook my head and laughed; grateful that I had a willing partner to take care of me in my time of need.

So yeah, that ended pretty well for the both of us, but now I'm the one doing the cleaning, which only happens if I have the time to which is rarely.

"Are you done eating yet?" Zayn asked as he padded into the same room that I was in.

"Yes I am actually." I stated matter of factly.

Seeming relieved, Zayn nodded, "good, otherwise we'd have an issue. So how about we get on this hunt!"

"Yeah sure whatever," I answered.

"Do you not want to know at all about what we're hunting?" Zayn raised an eyebrow at me.

I shrugged, "well I know that you're going to tell me anyway so why should I bother asking?"

"Point proven," Zayn nodded in thought. "So, before I was rudely interrupted, I was talking about this hunt that we're going to go on. It's not super big, but it's not really small at all either. And it's within your  
parameters."

When Zayn and I first started hunting, I set up a couple of rules, just as he had done for me.

1\. We could not go on any hunts within New York, nor could we go there in general.  
2\. We cannot have any contact with anyone that I might know.  
3\. We absolutely cannot have any contact at all with Harry Styles.

They're quite silly rules, but they're really quite simple to follow, no reason not to anyway.

"Okay then, what is it?" I asked unintentionally, though I knew that was exactly what he was waiting for.

"Ah, you finally asked the question! Well, It sort of has to do with Harry..." He trailed off, gaging my reaction.

I mini frowned...

"Remember that one case that I was involved in with the two murderers and all the beheadings all over New York and then some?"

My mini frown deepened instead of me verbally answering him.

"You know it was that one Spanish case where-"

"I know what case you're talking about," I cut him off lowly. From my tone he was hopefully able to tell that I was not a person to mess with.

"Good then. Well, there were vamps definitely involved in it, as you might have figured out already. There's a whole black market of blood going on that I'm just now finding out about so we're going to completely obliterate their source of blood. Sound like fun?" Zayn raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, definitely. But uhm question, how do you know there's a black market for blood and how is this at all within my parameters?" I glared at him.

"So you remember what Brian's roommate had said? Brian would come back with bags when he came back from being out at night. Am I not correct?"

"Well no, but-"

"Well this very same bag with the same unique pattern has been found all over the country and all in the possession of vampires." Zayn explained, "it doesn't come from any store or shop, believe me I've looked. So it's an original design that's specifically for this one kind of bag."

I shook my head, "I don't even want to ask about your sources. What do you suggest?"

"We could interrupt a deal in process. If the customer gets in the way we kill them, but the over all goal is to capture the dealer before they give the blood. We'll have to figure out if the blood is human or animal. I think that it'd be illegal either way because of how much they're giving out. We'll also figure out where their base is and we'll destroy it when we get there. We need to get this information by any means necessary, understand?" Zayn asked the question this time.

I nodded in understanding and started to lace up my beat up converse, "okay, even if it means torture, understood. So then, let's get on it." (In case you didn't notice, I used Zayn's terminology there.)

Tossing my bag over my shoulder, I followed Zayn out of the small not so abandoned cabin to his truck. This truck is apparently his 'pride and joy', as he has said multiple times, yet Zayn insists on not cleaning it himself. As could be imagined, it's pretty damn filthy. I mean sure, there isn't much time for doing that between the hunting and training, but you'd think that he'd make more of an effort to get the work done.

I hopped into the passenger's side and threw my bag in the back.

Oh yeah, another Rule of Zayn is that I absolutely may not drive his car on any account, even if he were to be bleeding out; (which has happened before). In that situation, he'd still drive and I'd apply the pressure to the wound. (Which had also happened)

Zayn slammed the door on his side once he got in and kept his bag in the console between us.

"Okay then, let's roll," Zayn said, starting up the car engine.

"Where are we going first?" I asked.

"Definitely not New York, which sort of sucks, but we're going to the next best place, Atlanta Georgia. Tons of gambling, should be fun."

"Very fun," I said with sarcasm, though it was sarcasm wasted on deaf ears.

"I know right," Zayn said looking over at me with a genuine grin on his face.

***

We got to Atlanta Georgia two days later.

Most of the traveling was boring, we didn't run into any vamps on the way nor any other monsters.

So I'll save you all the boredom that we (I) had to go through. Zayn was mostly busy searching up on potential leads, which he somehow finds entertaining, whereas I was mostly laying in bed texting Ed and Face Timing with William and Ed. You could probably guess who did the most talking.

If you guessed the baby (William) then you guessed right.

Yup William is talking quite a lot now. Mostly he says short words like Dada, Mama, or Lou amongst a bunch of other babble. But I think that his favorite word is hi. He says it all the time, even if he's cutting off someone mid-sentence (which no one really cares nor complains about).

Zayn thinks that I'm boring and lets just say that the feeling is mutual.

It's day time right now, so obviously, there wouldn't really be any funny business regarding vampires. However tonight we're going after our target, so it'd be wise to rest up. Zayn's smart and taking the opportunity, but I'm face timing Ed.

"Hey Ed," I said lowly, propping myself up on the lumpy motel mattress.

"Hey Lou," Ed said tiredly.

"How goes the work?" I asked.

Ed raised his eyebrow, "which job do you mean, in the field or at home?"

"Either or," I shrugged. I'd honestly much rather hear about Ed's life than my own.

"My job at home is difficult, because Klarise expects me to take care of William the moment I get home from being in the field since she's so tired. So then I'm the one who has to stay up with William at night while he's bawling his eyes out from the teething. I have to go into the field with ten minutes of sleep, if I'm lucky, and at least a whole brew of coffee."

"Jesus Ed, that sounds like absolute Hell!" I exclaimed, momentarily forgetting about Zayn sleeping not too far away from me. Before any questions or thoughts pop into your head, he is very much sleeping in a separate bed.

Zayn mumbled something along the lines of, "shut the Hell up Louis and go to sleep," but let's just say that it definitely didn't sound like that.

"Trust me it is, but it's worth it I guess," he smiled a fond smile that I knew wasn't for me.

"Yeah, but you should tell Klarise how you feel," I whispered in defiance, wanting him to start thinking more about his health as well.

"Well that's just the thing, Louis." Ed shrugged, keeping that fond smile on his face and I knew instantly what he was going to say next. I knew that tone in his voice all too well. "I feel a bit tired, but that's nothing compared to the love that I feel for her. I'm even thinking about proposing to her, in fact."

I smiled bitter sweetly, I was happy for him, yet upset for my ownself. Harry would smile like that towards me frequently, but it was so frequent that I took it for granted. Now that I'm away from him, I'm starting to miss that feeling that he'd give me.

Yes it's quite a selfish thought for such a precious moment, but it's a thought that I couldn't help thinking.

"Wow, are you sure you're ready for such a big change? I mean... remember what happened last time; I just don't want you to get hurt again."

Ed's eyes held understanding, "I won't. Marriage is something that she wants as well."

"Okay then. When were you thinking of proposing?"

He tiredly shrugged, "tonight, tomorrow, next week. Not sure really. When the moment feels right I guess."

"Okay then, I'll be sure to make my way over there on the way back from working on this case." I promised.

"Awesome, you better. You haven't visited in awhile." Ed scolded me. "If all goes fine with the proposal, would you be my best man?"

"Are you sure that you want me to be your best man? I mean there are Simon and Bart and other people that you could choose from. You knew them a lot longer than you've known me-"

"Lou, I meant what I said. I would like for you to be my best man. Is it a yes or no from you is what I need to know."

"It's a yes from me," I answered with finality, which caused Zayn to 'yell' at me again through his sleep.

"Louis William Tomlinson! Go. To. Sleep!"

"Okay okay," I mumbled.

Ed chuckled through the phone and used his parently voice on me. "It's way past someone's bedtime. You better get to bed mister before you get yourself into trouble."

"Whatever you say Eddy," I rolled my eyes. "Bye talk to you later, get some sleep."

"Later Lou." Ed grinned, yet not promising anything about sleeping.

Now I could go to sleep after having my daily evening talk with Ed.

***

"Louis, I have come to quite a horrifying conclusion," Harry said (well yelled) all the way from the other room.

"Yeah, and what's that?" I yelled back, intently watching an epic episode of The Walking Dead; the episode where the mega herd of zombies got into the prison gates. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes.

"You smell like death," Harry stated, and I paused the episode that I was watching, knowing that this was very much a serious topic. For the past week and a half, I haven't been bathing at all, because I know that would require help from Harry, which I did not want. So for the past week and a half, I've been layering on deodorant like you wouldn't believe. Harry didn't notice at first, but I do think that he's started to somewhat notice, though I don't have complete proof of this.

"And?" I asked.

"I am pretty much legally living with you so... you know..." Harry walked in and shrugged. "You should have a bit of sympathy for me."

I rolled my eyes and pressed play on the remote once again. "I have no sympathy for you."

"Well okay then. But I'll have to warn you, if you start smelling even worse, then I will not hesitate to walk out that door and never come back to help you ever again." Harry said, sounding deadly serious.

Pausing the t.v. again, I pursed my lips and didn't want to even chance Harry leaving, so I said the most reasonable thing that a person could in my situation.

"And what exactly did you have in mind?" I asked.

"Well... what solution would you like? You trying to bathe yourself and failing horrible (which ends up in your death). Some strange nurse to come here and wash you (which could end up with you being raped or just some stranger sees your jewels). Or, you could have me help you out and not judge you nor look at your you know what (in this scenario (the best scenario) you end up nice and happily clean)."

"Harry fucking Styles, you have got to be kidding me. Is this just a joke to see me naked!?" I asked seriously, my thumb overing over the play button on the remote.

Harry coughed out of surprise and I would have been concerned if he hadn't just suggested what he did. "Of course not! I care about you and your health Lou. Keeping up good hygiene is a part of that packaged deal because you could get an infection, which would not help you in your situation at all. I'm here to take care of you, Lou." Harry said genuinely.

I thought it over, looked at Harry, then looked back at the t.v. and pressed play with my simple answer, "no."

A couple of days later, I began to smell so bad that even deodorant couldn't help me and I just about could not stand it.

"Harry!" I called out from my bedroom.

Immediately, Harry ran to my room, looking frazzled as he looked around wildly with a weapon pointed adamantly. "What, what's wrong?" He asked, once he had established that there weren't any monsters around to hurt me.

"I smell." I answered.

"And what are you going to do about it?" He asked, putting his weapon back into his secret pocket in his jacket.

"I am going to accept your preposition from earlier." I mumbled.

"Louis, are you sure?"

I groaned in embarrassment, "hurry up before I change my mind."

Lets just say that I didn't change my mind, and Harry was quite respectful despite the situation. He also managed to completely ignore the boner that I had the entire time.

Over all, it hadn't been so bad, though it had left me with a sense of helplessness, knowing that I'd never be able to do thing normally ever again.

That feeling of helplessness was something that I wouldn't have had to experience if someone hadn't went and blown my legs up.

***

The next morning, my eyes were still closed, wanting to stay in the darkness that I hadn't provided for them during the day.

"Louis Tomlinson you had better get up this instant or else very bad things will happen to you!" Zayn exploded at me.

Grumbling, I opted for staying in bed and burying my head into the musty smelling motel pillow.

Groaning in annoyance, Zayn whacked me his hardest... with a pillow, which hurts very much mind you. "I told you to go to sleep multiple times last night! Why the Hell didn't you listen to me!?"

"Coz I don't listen to authority," I grunted out my ironic answer.

Zayn snorted, "yeah right, since when?"

"Since six months ago," I slurred.

"Well good thing I got a head start on you with that one, I've been doing it my whole life, so that allows me to do things like this-" Zayn literally dragged me out of the bed and cruelly allowed me to fall to the carpeted floor, though the carpet did nothing to lessen the fall.

"Zayn!" I yelled when pain coursed throughout my elbow and forehead from where they had both bumped the wooden bed post.

"Without even feeling bad for you," Zayn shrugged innocently. "I told you to get up, so you can't really blame me you know."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," I grumbled, getting up.

"I told you to sleep this afternoon and did you listen? No. I told you to get up this evening, did you listen? No. Quit being so defiant." Zayn complained, yet his complaints held a ring of truth, and seriousness.

I stretched out my elbow, knowing it was fine but I was stalling for giving my answer. Before I say it, I want to think it through carefully. "No promises, but I guess that I could try." I shrugged and allowed my arm to return back to my side. "That's going to bruise now, so thank you very much for that you little shit."

"You're very much welcome." Zayn answered, giving me a smile and a shrug; both were telltale signs that I had successfully lightened the mood.

After Zayn and I ate a couple of granola bars each for dinner, we got into Zayn's truck and he started it up. "So what exactly did you have in mind when it actually comes to finding a vampire to lead us to this blood dealer?"

"Louis Tomlinson, you're acting like we aren't hunters that know exactly how vampires look like. And if you aren't able to tell from looks alone, then you could always use your detective skills or whatever to figure it out. Pale skin, darker concealing clothes, scarves, turtlenecks, slinking around in the dark, avoiding the street lights, taking alleyways; all sure signs that a person is a flipping vampire, do you understand?"

Zayn pointed out.

"What ever you say, boss," I mumbled sarcastically.

"Good, now keep your eyes open." Zayn suggested. "I am the one driving over here."

Choosing not to answer, I instead gazed out the window intently. Fifteen minutes in, not a single person stuck out to me, so I began to grow bored; very bored.

"Zayn, I haven't seen any vampires, and it's been so long," I groaned, leaning my forehead against the truck window.

"Uhm, not quite. I doubt that you've /really/ been looking hard enough. I mean, I saw a couple, but they were on my side and I want you to be able to spot them if you really think that you're going to become a professional hunter." Zayn explained.

"Shit," I quietly cursed. I was letting my tiredness get the best of me. Deciding to man up and take this more seriously, I sat up instead of slouching like I had been as I alertedly stared out my window as well as the wind shield. It's been awhile that I've been working in this field, so I should accept that and take this line of work more seriously. After scanning over multiple oddly dressed people, I determined that none of them were vampires. However, one person stood out to me the most. He was pale and lanky, yet he just barely blended in with the rest of the crowd. I almost wouldn't have noticed him if it weren't for the fact that he broke away from the rest of the crowd to turn into an alleyway. He nearly blended in with the alleyway as well with his dark colored clothes.

"I think that I've found one," I announced.

"Finally, let's get going then." He nodded and parked his car right in front of the alleyway so that it was blocked. We quickly hopped out, Zayn was visibly armed and I was armed with a concealed weapon to use just in case I really needed to.

Before the deal was able to go down, Zayn cleared his throat, "I am pretty sure that what you're doing here is illegal. I won't hesitate to kill you, but I need information from you."

The man whom was supposed to be receiving the blood looked from me to Zayn to the man holding a suitcase that looked quite heavy, then the suitcase itself. Probably deciding that it wasn't worth it, he ran with such incredible speed that he went vertically up the nearby wall and he disappeared into the night.

The guy with the suitcase simply smirked at us, "good evening hunters, how may I help you?"

"We would like to know exactly how much blood you've got in there and the source from where you're getting it from," Zayn answered, glancing over at me.

I nodded. Since the man's attention was on Zayn, he wouldn't really be watching me as closely. So, I took the opportunity to inch towards the man.

"Well I would like to know exactly why you think that this is any business of yours, Zayn Malik? After all, I'm sure you know that there's no way we're both walking out of this alive." He spoke cockily while holding his suit case closer to him.

"Oh I know, that's exactly why I planned this out, unlike you." Zayn shrugged.

That was the moment that his eyes widened as he started to look around, "where's that pal of yours? He was just-"

When he turned around to face me, his eyes widened even more so, to the point where it was almost comical. With my own eyes focused on my target, I injected a syringe into the vampire's curse mark on his neck that made him a vampire to begin with.

"What the Hell did you just-" He placed his hands over top the injection site, dropping the suitcase, causing it to plop open. Blood made its appearance on the ground from the breakage of their so carefully labeled vials. Paper bags were soaked from the bloodied ground.

Zayn smirked, "dead man's blood. A.k.a. your poison. Now, I'll just be taking this," Zayn bent over and gathered the soiled bags back into the suitcase, not bothering with the glass, and closed the suitcase back up. "Alrighty then Louis, just place him in the back. Make sure you inject him again so he can't move until we reach the motel at least."

***

We didn't question him when we got to the motel, we only bound him to the couch, drugging him up with more dead man's blood; which wasn't easy to do in the least.

If you don't know much about vampires, don't worry because I didn't either a few months ago. I was under the impression that they'd completely disintegrate in sunlight or when in the presence of garlic. Come to find out, if they come in contact with any of those things it'd be as if they were having an allergic reaction and nothing more.

As Harry explained to me a long while back, exanguinating them kills vampires permanently. Their entire being revolves around consuming blood; blood from a living being.

If they were to drink dead blood, then it'd act as a sedative, a /very/ heavy sedative.

So there's a little important tidbit of information on vamps.

Anyways, Zayn and I took turns watching him through out the night, which wasn't too bad a job since the vampire was passed out and delirious most of the time.

The next couple of days we never left the truck until we got back to our hideout. The vampire was heavily injected with dead man's blood and was blindfolded for the last few hours of the ride.

Once we got to our hideout, the vampire was kept blindfolded even as we let him out.

"Where m'I?" The vampire asked, voice was muffled and slurred.

"Exactly where you don't want to be," I answered him.

"Ooo, a bit harsh there Louis?" Zayn chuckled and sat the vampire down on one of the wooden chairs as I bound his hands behind the chair and the ankles to the chair tightly.

I rolled my eyes, "whatever."

"Now, vamp you're going to tell us exactly what we need to hear and you'll be let off on the side of the nearest road." Zayn stated.

"Thirsty," the vampire said through a very dry and tired throat.

"I'm aware of that. And you're going to stay that way all the way up to the time that you leave. Now, the subject of whether or not you leave hear alive, well sort of, is based on every word that you tell us. Do you understand?" Zayn said coldly, taking out a knife.

Pursing my lips, I slightly nodded my head in the direction of the back room, which serves as both our bedroom while Zayn gazed over at me.

He acknowledged my head nod and mumbled, "go on, you're good."

I carefully padded to the back room and laid onto my makeshift 'bed'. My eyes focused on the older dresser there that neither of us use. It's full of cobwebs and spiders from the lack of us using it. Since we travel around so much, we usually just take our clothes with us anyway.

My eyes focused in on a notch in the leg of the dresser to block out what was going on in the other room.

My mind was thrown into a flashback just from the small insignificant notch in the dresser.

"Where did this come from!?" Harry exploded.

"Where did what come from? Harry what's going on; I'm trying to sleep." I groaned.

"This notch here in your dresser is what I'm talking about. It's chipped. Did you buy it like that? Did it do that on its own? What happened to it?" Harry went on talking.

"Harry would you please calm down and turn me so that I can see what you're making such a big fuss about?" I nearly pleaded as I yawned and sat up in my bed.

Harry's countenances changed to one of a guilty looking person, "sorry Louis, here." He pulled the blanket from off of me and grabbed me by both my ankles then turned my around so that I was facing my dresser.

My eyes traveled to where Harry was pointing, and immediately I rolled my eyes and plopped backwards so I was laying on the bed again. "Harry, I did that to it. I was frustrated and kicked the dresser, which made it chip. No big deal."

"And what got you so upset?" He asked, taking a seat next to me. 

"Niall," I answered simply.

I didn't see him, but I knew that something had changed about his demeanor, "oh. I'm sorry about what happened."

"No, don't apologize, that happened before he tried that shit with me. It was the day that I first saw you at my father's gravestone. You just sort of pissed me off and my dad pissed me off, so I just wanted to be alone but then Simon wanted to go and set up a little play date for Niall and I." I spat out bitterly. "So, well I took it out on the poor dressser."

"I see." Harry pursed his lips guardedly. "I bet that you'd like to sleep now. I'm sorry for interrupting your sleep for this."

"It's fine, Harry I don't mind talking to you at all. In fact, I quite enjoy our conversations." I smiled fondly as I was turned back around and tucked in carefully.

That was the very same fond smile that I fell asleep with while I fell asleep on my makeshift bed instead of my bed at home.


	3. Part One: Paraplegic in Other Ways

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hiya! Sammi here! Pretty sure it's my Tuesday to update, I don't have my schedule to remember, but anyway, enjoy the chapter!
> 
> QoTD: What movie, or movies, are you looking forward to seeing?
> 
> For me, I want to see Suicide Squad, the sequel to Alice in Wonderland, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

I didn't want Zayn and I's relationship to be nor end up like Harry and I's.

It started out well, he had known my father even better than I apparently had and I wanted to know my father. We ended up wanting to know more about each other, and that did happen. We even ended up learning more about ourselves. Nothing was too serious, we were close friends and nothing more. While in the field we relied on each other equally, despite all the secrets kept between us, although someone had more secrets than the other (you could probably guess who that one was).

When I became a paraplegic, I became way more dependent on him than I've ever been for anyone in my life. However, he became less dependent on me since I could no longer be of service to him. The secrets that Harry kept from me grew a larger wedge in our relationship along with his now suppressed /feelings/.

We started to argue often. When I mean argue, I don't mean the playful little spats that you and your best friend or a sibling might have, I mean the full out yelling, screaming, and tears. Harry undermined me, thinking I'm weak because of my inability to walk.

I mean, I myself didn't think that I was weak until he started to really act like it. That was about when the cracks in our relationship started to really form.

"Why do you even need to eat this much?" Harry groaned as he was busy cooking in the kitchen.

"I need the energy to heal if I ever am going to, especially after this most recent surgery." I simply answered from my wheelchair the very same answer that I always answer.

"If that's the only reason, then you really don't need me to cook this much food for you," Harry grumbled spitefully. "After all, it's not like you're going to even..." He cut himself off and there was a silence between us that was uncomfortable.

I knew what he was about to say, but I needed to confirm and actually hear him say it, so I wheeled myself into the kitchen. "Go ahead and say what you were going to say, I dare you." I growled at him from the entryway.

Harry turned the stove off and turned to face me, a scowl on his face, "okay then, maybe I will. It's not like you're going to even walk again, so you should just stop eating so much if that's the reason why."

My heart dropped into my stomach and a lump formed in my throat. "Well you know what Styles? Fuck you." Swiveling around in my wheelchair, I then made my way quickly to my bedroom and locked myself in.

A fairly guilty Harry had sat outside the door for the entire evening and the rest of the next day day. I'm not sure if he slept at all, but if he did, he would have been awakened from a resounding thump on the ground then my crying out in pain.

Well Zayn and I are in one of those slumps right now.

"So what did the vamp say last night?" I asked Zayn as I bit into one of our overly ripened bananas. It's something that I've learned to acquire a taste for after awhile.

Zayn shook his head, "nothing of importance to you."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked guardedly.

"It's somewhere where you cannot go. It's right before the border of New York. So I guess that you won't be going." Zayn shrugged.

I sighed and put the banana down, "Zayn, I can help out somehow."

"No it's fine, you haven't been helping out much on missions anyway lately. You need a break. I'll take care of this. This base isn't even a very big factory, it's just a sub-building. I'm just going to go in for some sleuthing, so not really much for you to do anyway. You'd be more helpful here anyway. We need more water, we need more money and we need more groceries. You should really go take care of that instead." Zayn said, undermining me with every single word he said. I mean, he didn't even tell me where it is, and he didn't even ask me if I'd want to go at all. I mean, even if I did answer /no/ to not going, I wouldn't have minded helping him pack up.

Where he's going is quite far from where we are right now.

Since he didn't even ask for me to help, I didn't offer, deciding to throw away the banana, no longer hungry.

"Fine then." I murmured, giving up and walking out of the small cabin as Zayn began to pack in the back room.

I changed into a tank top and an old pair of shorts before equipping myself with quite a large basket.

Assuming that Zayn was going to take the truck, I started out on foot into the nearby village. It would only take a couple of hours to get there, nothing I'm not used to doing. When I was in High school, I had to walk an hour and a half from high school to the orphanage and back. With the recent events, I'm praying that I'd be able to even walk that far.

After all, my legs were just injured a year and a half ago. Something I haven't mentioned to Zayn or even Ed is that my legs still tend to hurt after a long time of being up on them. They're not completely healed, but they're almost there.

Just almost.

With an hour and a half with nothing better to do, my mind flashed back to the moment when I fell out of my wheelchair. I was locked in my room and I was too far from the door to unlock it, though I knew that Harry would come charging in in less than two seconds, my mind couldn't even think of that.

It was too much impact for my legs so soon after my surgery, so all my mind could do was focus on that pain. All I had wanted to do was to get into my bed and sleep there instead of sleeping somewhat upright.

I screamed my loudest at the excruciating pain and immediately, Harry came busting in through my door, not even bothering with picking the lock. However, I am almost certain that I need to pay to get it replaced despite the fact Harry did it.

My knight in shining armor picked me up bridal style and I screamed even louder than I thought I'd be able to as his arm came in contact with the back of my knees. I was quickly, yet carefully, set on top of my unmade bed.

Harry dialed someone on his cell phone as he tried talking to me gently, yet all I heard were muffled jumbles of word vomit. Even still, I pulled on the front of his shirt begging for him to take away the pain.

After a great deal of nodding, yet no other action, Harry grabbed my wrists and detached them from his shirt before running out of my room. I screamed no at him, thinking that it'd make him stay.

Yet when I couldn't see him anymore, absolute fear flooded my system along with even more pain at how helpless my situation was and I began to loudly sob, covering my eyes with the palms of my hands so I wasn't able to see anymore.

I didn't hear Harry enter the room.

But I did feel a cool liquid from inside a glass being forced against my opened lips. Certain that this was Harry's doing, I accepted it down my raw throat and Harry placed a dry pill on my tongue, which I swallowed with more water that Harry offered me. I calmed, realizing that the pain was slowly ebbing away, and dropped my hands from my eyes and opened them. Through my blurry tear filled vision, I was just barely able to make out Harry's tall form, so I wiped the wetness away from my eyelids and lashes.

"Yeah, there's some swelling! What the Hell do I do!?" I heard Harry yell into the phone and saw a very worried and pissed off Harry with a trembling hand entangled in his hair as he looked at my legs in horror.

"Okay, yes, yes I can," Harry rushed out of my room again.

I kept silent as I watched Harry reenter my room again, this time with a folded plain white sheet and a bucket full of something. This time he wasn't on the phone.

Setting the bucket down, he unfolded the sheet halfway and carefully placed it beneath my legs. Harry took both my ankles into one of his hands and gently lifted my legs up off of the sheet. Focusing intently on the bucket now, he poured out the contents of the bucket onto the sheet, which I found out to be ice, then evenly spread it out across the sheet.

For the first time since this whole fiasco, Harry's eyes focused in on my face, "this is going to be very cold, but since your legs are swollen, we need to get that down. Okay?"

I nodded and answered with a roughed, "'kay Har."

Harry gently laid my legs back down, only this time they were met with ice.

A hiss escaped from between my teeth at the sudden cold and Harry climbed up on the bed and positioned himself next to me.

"I j-just n-noticed some-thing," I said through shivers.

"And what would that be?" Harry asked lightly, running his fingers through my hair, which has gotten noticeably longer.

"I never a-asked," I looked sat up to look at my horrifying looking legs, knowing they'd never look normal again.

"Ask about what Lou?" Harry asked softly.

"Ab-bout that boy. W-was he okay; what hap-pened to him? I-I'd like t-to know th-that at least o-one good th-thing came out th-this."

"He was never in danger Lou, it was all planned out by Mrs. Wright's fake personal Nurse. Mrs. Wright's son was safely returned to her." Harry looked just about ready to punch a hole through something.

I plopped my top half back onto my bed, relieved that he was safe at least and two people were put into jail; two people that actually deserved it.

"Thank you for not hiding that. I...I'm glad that Mrs. Wright has her son back now." I grinned lopsidedly.

Harry's features softened, "I'm glad too, Lou."

I sighed at the memory, longing to be in that moment.

Silently, I ignored the pain that began to blossom in my legs and instead took in the beautiful view of the village. It's small and not as populated, so there's a lot of jobs  
that need to be done around. The people that live here are retired hunters, or people with powers that never quite found their way in hunting, but instead decided to hide away.

As could be imagined, there aren't so many younger people here, so they always revel whenever I come around (usually with Zayn). I made my usual stop at Galena's garden, being self-sufficient people, there's a lot of those and farms around. They all contribute to their community in their own ways.

I knocked on the small door that was there.

"I'm in the garden!" A woman shouted from the backyard, so I didn't bother with the front door and went around back into the garden. "Oh hello there Louis, are you looking for a job or are you just keeping me company?"

"A job would be nice ma'am, and as for company, it seems that you could accompany me instead. Zayn's out on a hunt right now." I answered back, a trace of humor lacing my words.

"Sounds just like a date," the old woman let out a short laugh. "I'll pay in crops as usual, I know you and Zayn must be running out of food by now."

"Oh you know it, sounds good to me," a corner of my mouth tilted upwards.

"Okay then, I know you're looking for some things other than some potatoes and veggies, so I'll keep this one quick. I'd like for you to weed and water my garden today. I pulled up what I could of the weeds, but my back just ain't what it used to be you know, so there's still quite a number left over."

"Yes ma'am," I nodded and took the gardening gloves from her hands as well as a hat with a wide brim to keep the sun off of my face. I kneeled down and began to pull at the firmly rooted weeds. 

"I'll be inside cooking, I suppose that Zayn won't be back for awhile, so make sure you eat it all before then," she winked at me before disappearing into her small house.

It took quite a long while of tousling until I was able to pull up all of the weeds, by then the sun was high in the sky and emitting its rays directly onto my own self. Within that time frame, Galena had came outside thrice, once to check up on how I was doing, another time to offer me some freshly made apple juice, and the last time was to chat with me for a bit before returning inside.

Apple trees don't grow in this garden, but down the road there's a family there who has managed to grow and maintain an orchid in the clearing there. Galena tells me of how much work it took to accomplish, but after many generations, there's still an orchid there to show for it.

That's where Zayn and I usually go to work in order to obtain our fruits.

After about twenty five minutes, I finished watering the garden.

I was done finally, so I headed inside red faced and my brow was probably shiny with sweat.

Galena chuckled, "got in good exercise?"

"Always," I just barely panted out.

"Good then, I could imagine my garden got in a good tending. I put in half a pot of soup I expect that pot back when you come visit again." She playfully chided me.

"Of course, ma'am," I nodded, regaining my breath and grabbing the basket from her when she held it out.

"There's also ten potatoes in there, fifteen carrots, two heads of broccoli, and a head of cabbage in there. Just as a heads up I know Ernie has been in need of some carrots and potatoes in exchange for some cash. From what I've heard, he pays quite handsomely." She winked at me.

"I'll keep that in mind as I'm out and about," I nodded and waved as I walked out.

"You take care then, Louis."

"You too, Galena," I acknowledged.

The rest of the day was hard work, lots of hard work, especially since Zayn wasn't presently helping me.

But I managed to do some work in the orchard to gain a ton of fruit.

From there, I helped in someone's herb garden, those herbs are for medicinal purposes strictly, so they're quite important. I didn't get any herbs for that reason, but instead, I asked for a new jar for water since the bucket at the cabin is starting to crack.

I visited their local barn to take care of the animals some and gained some dairy produce.

After that, I helped the doctor out for a couple hours with his patients. Being the only doctor in the village, it could get quite tiring. From that task, I gained medical supplies (which is something Zayn didn't notice we were running out of, but I did since I am observant) and also a free check up for my legs. He told me that I needed to ice my legs after walking and hunting, but apply heat before sleeping. Both of which are things that that we don't have (but I didn't mention that).

Deciding that I didn't want to strain myself too much, I ended my day at Ernie's, which was where I ended up giving away my dinner from Galena on top of five carrots and three potatoes in exchange for thirty-five dollars.

I didn't walk back to the cabin, but instead I traveled into a nearby town and walked into a store with hesitant eyes. In a tree hollow not too far away, I hid the tall basket with all my earnings in it except for the money.

Technically the money is mine... but Zayn very clearly stated that we needed the money. But then again, Zayn usually keeps most of the money anyway... I pocketed twenty dollars for Zayn and decided that the fifteen dollars are for a greater cause, it's to help my legs so that I can help Zayn.

In my head, I repeated that mantra several times as I walked down the aisle where there were tons of medicines, vitamins, and bandages.

Ten minutes later, I stood in line waiting to place my one item on the conveyor belt.

When I was the first in line, I decided to nervously placed the package int the cashier's hands, figuring that the woman behind me needed the conveyor belt more than I did due to all the groceries she had.

"That'd be twenty dollars, Sir," the cashier spoke when I quickly thrusted the fifteen dollars into his hands.

"It only costs fifteen dollars," I pointed out.

"Yeah, it says that on the box, but this is plus tax, and it costs even more when you buy it in this state." He answered, "now twenty dollars or else you're not going to get this-" he paused to read the label, "hot and cold pack."

"Okay okay, just wait a minute," I said, anxiously reaching into my pocket and grabbing a five to give away.

It's for the greater good, I kept repeating in my head, trying to justify using the money that was supposed to be Zayn's.

Knowing that I absolutely wouldn't be able to make the two hour walk back to the cabin, I stopped at a nearby park and laid on the park bench, staring up at the stars.

Tears came to my eyes when I came to the realization that Harry was probably looking at the very same stars right now in New York wondering where I was.

Sighing shakily, I tore open the small cardboard package and took out my hot and cold pack. It wasn't quite big enough for both legs, so I decided to place it over my right leg after I bent it a certain way, activating the coldness.

Fear flooded me when I realized exactly how sore I was. If someone were to try and mug me for the fifteen dollars that I had in my pocket, I'd be pretty defenseless. I had stupidly brought no weaponry with me. I also realized how stupid I was to get rid of Galena's soup so easily for a measly thirty-five dollars as my stomach began to growl at me.

I decided to stare upwards instead of acknowledging the growling and my anxiety immediately left me, reminding me of how safe I had felt in Harry's arms.

Behind my eyelids, a scene began to play out. I was in Harry's arms, facing his chest. As usual, he was running his fingers through my hair. It was quiet and tranquil, yet a curious question arose within me.

"Harry?" I spoke up quietly.

"Yes, Lou?" Harry answered, pausing a moment in his hair stroking only to start up again.

"Do all hunters have powers of some sort?" I asked.

"No. Only special ones like me," Harry answered, chuckling afterwards. There was a long pause before the chuckle quieted and was soaked into the walls, forgotten. "You're one of the special ones too, you know. That's the reason why you're healing so quickly, it's in your blood. Literally."

After an even longer pause than Harry's, I answered quietly with another question that let him kno that I did in fact hear. "What if I don't want it to be in my blood?"

There wasn't even a pause before Harry spoke his next simple statement, "I don't know."

Those three words were just a few of my most feared words. Those three words mean that I don't know who I really am or what I will be doing later in life.

Yes, I know tht it sounds like a silly thing to say, but in all honesty, wouldn't you like to know that you could possibly be ripped to shreds by a werewolf, or sucked dry by a vampire maybe even a week from now if even?

Well I sure would.

I chose not to say anything back in response.

***

I woke up and stretched as I sat up, noticing that it was around the afternoon and that my hot and cold pack had gone warm instead. Sighing, I neatly (and carefully) placed the pack into its box.

After picking up the food basket from the tree hollow, I began to walk back to the cabin.

Once I got there, it was pretty boring afterwards. I poured out the water bucket into the lake, choosing to return it to its original source since it had sat out for too long. From there, I filled up the new jar with water and stored both our food and money in its designated spot.

The hot and cold pack was placed carefully inside the leaky water bucket, which I had filled with water, and put it into the backroom, which stays quite cool during the day and even colder at night.

Having nothing better to do, I chose to go out and do some animal hunting. Zayn may not eat meat, but I sure as Hell do. Since Zayn won't allow me to buy any meat with the money, I have to hunt it on my own (which I hate doing, by the way). I learned from an animal hunter in the village how to prepare any animals I've hunted so I am more than grateful for that.

By the end of my hunting, I had accumulated three rabbits, two squirrels and a deer. Also, I had gathered some blueberries from a nearby bush.

As you could probably tell, it took a lot of heavy lifting to especially get the deer back, so as could be imagined my legs began to hurt like Hell, especially after how much work I did yesterday.

So, by the end of it, I was just about ready to sit with my hot and cold pack held up to my aching legs that were protesting quite greatly. Instead, I proceeded to prepare the animals. Once they were reduced to strips of meat, I set them outside to be dried in the sun.

It was evening and I was laying on the musty smelling couch in our living area with the hot and cold pack held up to my left leg this time, acting as an ice pack.

The door slammed open and Zayn walked in tiredly. The moment he saw me, he raised an eyebrow, "you bought that?"

"Yeah, with the money that I earned, but I'll give you what's left," I answered.

"And how much food did you get?" He asked.

"Maybe enough to last a few weeks or so," I answered.

"Anything else?" He asked grumpily.

"I got thirty-five dollars and some medical supplies. Oh and also a jar to replace the old bucket," I rattled off immediately.

"Only thirty five dollars? How much did that thing cost?" He asked, referring to the hot and cold pack.

"Twenty dollars," I replied quietly while looking down.

He placed a hand on his forehead, "you see, this is the exact reason why I don't trust you with money, you'd spend it all on useless junk!"

"Zayn there's still fifteen dollars left-" I was cut off by Zayn.

"Just keep the damn money. I would have gotten way more than thirty-five dollars. You mustn't have worked hard enough. You see, this is why you're such a useless partner, you can't listen for shit, and I can't trust you with anything, not to mention your stupid legs that won't fucking heal. All you do is slow me down all the time!" He yelled and I pursed my lips, no reply leaving them. "Yeah that's what I thought. I'm going out for a smoke, don't wait up."

***

"Harry, I want to walk again," I brought up as the sun was rising over the horizon, though I think that I was really the only one watching.

I was laying across Harry's lap and he was sitting on the garden bench. If someone were to ask how we got there, I wouldn't be able to answer, because I honestly don't know. It was just something spontaneous I suppose.

"Okay." Was all that he said.

"Harry, will you help me to walk again?" I asked.

"Before walking you need to stretch out your legs," he rattled right off the bat, indicating that he had been thinking of this earlier.

"I'm okay with that." I answered.

"And it's going to hurt a lot." Harry stated.

"I can take a bit of pain," I answered.

"Good then. I'll help you do some stretches today. I guess our day is planned out." Harry chuckled lightly

For a good five hours, Harry helped me with stretching my legs before suggesting that I should just try to stand up so that my legs can get used to holding my body weight again.

I answered with a willing 'okay'.

Harry placed his hands on my waist, using all of his strength to keep me from falling over. My vision went out for a moment from how much it hurt and I furrowed my brow, looking down at my red and trembling legs that were just barely holding my body up.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked gently.

"Ow," was all I said, tightly gripping Harry's biceps.

"I could imagine. Can you move a foot forward for me just a little bit?" Harry asked, focusing on my legs as well.

"I c-can try," I stuttered. I told my foot to slide across my carpeted floor, just an inch. No matter how much I tried coaxing either of my feet, all they did was tremble even more. "I can't." I eventually said, giving up.

"You can, you just think that you can't. I want you to try one more time very hard. Then we can sit down and take a rest how does that sound?"

"Very good." I nodded, and began to focus my hardest on my right foot. /I can move. I can move you. You can move./ I kept repeating over and over in my head to try and get my foot to move. After a full minute or or so of trying my hardest, my foot slid across the floor a whole inch, and that was when I stopped and leaned entirely on Harry. Harry easily held me up and carefully laid me down on my couch.

"Are you okay L-" I immediately cut him off.

"Did you see that Harry?!" I exploded. "I moved my foot an inch! A whole inch!"

He chuckled, "Of course I saw it. Didn't I tell you that you could do it?"

The next morning, I was more than eager to continue my training, however, Harry promptly told me no. My legs were swelling too much to be normal, so he promised to take care of my the whole day and helped me to apply ice to my legs.

***

I sighed at the memory, longing to be by Harry's side once again, but I knew that that would not be happening any time soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why hello there! Going to keep this short because I know that I'm a bit late with posting, so I'll go straight to the QoTD!
> 
> QoTD: Do any of you play sports? If not, do you like sports or do something instead of them?
> 
> I don't really play sports because I don't like them. But instead, I dance! It's so much fun.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

I silently and carefully off washed an apple for my breakfast, though I, admittedly, wasn't really all that hungry. Knowing that I'd only waste it if I ate the whole thing, I used a knife to cut the apple into slices, deciding that Zayn could have any of the leftovers along with whatever else he's eating for breakfast. I cored each quarter with care before slicing them into eighths. From there, I ate three of the pieces before storing away the leftovers.

After that, I had nothing better to do, so I took out my cell phone whilst leaning casually against the counter, deciding to text Ed.

L: Hiya Ed

He answered within moments.

Ed: Hiya Buddy!

L: Ugh don't call me that, you make me sound like a kid. I though that we were on first name basis, Sheeran.

Ed: Oh, my bad... Then hiya Louis!

L: Hi Ed

Ed: You said that already.

L: Um no I didn't. I said 'hiya' before, just now, I said 'hi'

Ed: I hate it when you're right.

L: That must be the reason why you hate me all the time

Ed: Haha, very funny. SO how are things?

L: Ed, you know that I can't talk about my current situation. That was the whole reason why I'm still communicating with you remember?

Ed: oops, my bad. How are YOU doing?

L: okay. How are you doing?

Ed: Good. Really, really good. In fact, even really, really, really good.

I sighed in relief when he didn't comment any further on the previous topic, however my phone buzzed when I received a text message, proving that I had sighed just a moment too soon. My finger hovered over the select key, hesitant to open the message.

Ed: I'm going to proposed to Klarise!

That was when I really sighed in relief, however when my phone buzzed again I jumped and nearly fell over.

Ed: Oh, and don't think that I didn't notice your lack of response to my question. You will talk to me about that later. Now about the wedding, you're invited. Well if you can come that is...

I quickly answered.

L: Of course I can go

Ed: you didn't even ask what day it's going to be.

L: Doesn't matter, you're my friend, I'll be there for you whenever you need me, that includes your wedding

Ed: Thanks buddy :) same here. Besides Simon and my mother, you're the only friend that I have.

"It'll never cease to amaze me how so damn fancy your phone is," Zayn said as he groggily walked in.

I pursed my lips and casually sent Ed a message.

L: Besides Alice, you're my only friend.

Purposely, I didn't mention Harry, and I knew that he wouldn't either. Besides, Harry and I clearly weren't close enough as friends if he was still able to keep secrets from me.

"There's already a partial apple cut up in there if you want it," I stated instead of commenting.

Zayn went into our food storage and scrounged up the apple slices that I had cut earlier, not even bothering to say a simple /thanks/. "You know, hunters usually don't have very nice phones like that; don't have the money. Sure is a job, but it doesn't pay well at all." Zayn took a bite, "but anyway, some other hunters may ask about it. They may even try to steal your phone from you. You've been forewarned." Zayn said quite dramatically before quietly crunching on the apple.

"You've forewarned me too many times," I chuckled, remembering faintly when Zayn first brought it up. I was quite surprised to say in the least, having been under the impression that it was a very cheap phone that everyone has. After all, Harry had been the one to instill that impression into my mind...

It's been awhile, and my training with Harry has been progressing quite nicely. Harry's been helping me with stretching, exercises, and standing. Since my legs are getting stronger, he's decided that I can start using crutches instead of a full-blown wheelchair.

I of course approved because it showed that I was steadily but surely progressing. Even still, we kept my wheelchair just in case. I mean you never know what could happen, right?

It just so happen that whilst Harry was out on a hunt, I was very carefully cooking in the kitchen. Well, sort of cooking. It's also something that Harry's helped me improve upon in my crippled state. However, being more than occupied with cooking, it never occurred to me that I didn't have my cell phone on me. Though I suppose that at that moment in time, I wouldn't have paid attention to it even if I did have it on my person.

When Harry came back, he didn't say anything leaving my completely oblivious to the situation that I was in. Not until after we sat down to eat and I started eating did I notice just how upset Harry was when he didn't start eating right away.

"Hey Har are you okay?" I asked, putting down my fork.

Harry sighed and spoke his first real sentence of the evening. "Louis, I'm sorry, but we're at that point in our relationship where I need to say this. It's something really important and it's been preventing me from speaking with you."

I nervously fiddled with my fingers in my lap, what could he possibly mean by that? From his tone of voice, it sounds like it's something really bad and serious. Maybe he's finally realized how much of a burden I am to take care of and has given up. To distract my thoughts, I shakily focused my eyes on his face instead, watching his every move and carefully documenting in my mind each nuance of his current facial expression. In that moment, I chose to remain silent, not sure of what I should say.

"I really am sorry Lou, but you're phone is crap, to put it bluntly. It needs to be replaced immediately. I mean it's practically a flip phone. I'm pretty sure we should kill it with fire because it survived a freaking explosion! Well, maybe not fire, but something else because I'm almost certain that it's cursed."

Sighing in relief that it was something as minor as that, I relaxed into my seat, "well, when you put it that way, I guess that I'm in need of a new phone... The only requirement that I have is that all the pictures that Ed sent me needs to be printed out, well in that case, I'd like all of my pictures should be printed out... I have some pictures of Ed, Stacy, and I... make sure those are definitely saved." I said, faintly remembering the pool of blood that had surrounded Stacy on the evening that she had died.

Harry's smile faded, "you good?"

I nodded, clearing my mind, "yeah. Yeah I'm fine."

"Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Lou- ah you've finally snapped out of it," Zayn snapped two fingers in front of my face just to poke fun at me. "I do wonder what you think about sometimes."

"Well then, it's a good thing that it's in my head. So, uhm yesterday... what did you learn, about the facility?" I decided now was a good time to ask, though I didn't bring up the whole argument that we had.

"It's one of many, just like the vamp said, but there's an HQ facility. I have the coordinates and locations of all of the branches as well as their Head Quarters. I'm thinking that we should take down their whole base, sound like a good plan?"

"Zayn, that sounds like a really big task..." I carefully trailed off, "do you really think that we can take them down all on own?"

Zayn burst into the most real fit of laughter than I've heard from him in awhile. "Of course not dip shit. That's why we're calling in for some back up."

I sighed in relief, glad that Zayn hadn't gone completely senile. "So... who exactly are we gathering up? From how many retired hunters there are, it seems that there really aren't that many hunters out and about."

"Well then, that's a good thing then. That just means that they are very well hidden nowadays. I mean, what's the point in a having a noisy hunter. He'd just scare away what he's hunting, call attention to himself, and maybe even get eaten by a bear." Zayn pointed out, making some very odd hand gestures.

"Why a bear?" I asked, noticing that had been the only specific animal name that he had said.

He shrugged, "just because that was the biggest non-extinct animal that I could come up with in that moment. I was going to say a T-rex, but you know, they're sort of dead so it wouldn't really count anyway."

"Oh okay," I said. That makes sense after all.

"Besides the point, there are more hunters than you think. I think that for this one we should only need three other people, and I happen to know just the perfect people for the job."

"And who would that be?" I asked, as if I'd knew who they would be if he named them. However, as I thought, I was left with even more questions after he excitedly told me the three names.

Zayn's face immediately lit up as if he had been waiting for me to ask the question. "Josh Devine, Paul Higgins, and Liam Payne."

"I knew I shouldn't have asked," I murmured, placing my palm over my temple to ease the headache forming there.

A thought crossed my mind as I took my palm away from my temple and I just stared at my palm, suddenly aware of the exact spot where I had placed it.

Nine months ago, I was laying in bed with my eyes closed, yet I wasn't sleeping. In those days, sleep hadn't come so easily because of the pain that I had in my legs. Even though the pain had began to lessen, it was still uncomfortably there, keeping me awake. Harry was washing dishes in the kitchen and I was listening in on him trying to rap to Twenty One Pilot's new song, Heathens. I think that it's fair to say that the two of us are equally obsessing over that song.

Suddenly, the quiet attempts were stopped and the water from the tap turned off. It was quiet enough of for me to hear his quiet footsteps pad out of the kitchen and the floor in the living room creak as he passed through. The footsteps grew even quieter, nearly inaudible, as they approached my door, even though he was closer to me. Footsteps continued to his side of the bed then stopped there when the mattress dipped as he crawled into bed next to me. I could tell that he was trying to be silent to keep me 'sleeping'. He knows how difficult sleep has been for me lately, not only because of the pain, but also because of my abnormal sleeping position. Now I need to sleep on my back because when I sleep on my sides it puts too much pressure on my legs.

I suddenly felt Harry's presence above me even though he was still next to me.

Against my temple, I felt Harry playing with the hair that was there, twirling it and smoothing it, and just running his hands through it. I relaxed into his skillful hand, leaning into it. The atmosphere changed as he smoothed back my hair from my temple and suddenly, yet gently placed his soft lips there and I stiffened, however soon relaxed when I heard Harry's calm and reassuring voice.

"I'll always keep you safe no matter what, and not just because your father said so, but because I want to."

"LOUIIIIIISSSS!!! You did that thing again!" Zayn complained and groaned.

I smiled slightly at my palm, balling it into a fist momentarily before releasing it. "Stop complaining, we have somewhere to be don't we?"

"Yeah that's right, we do!" Zayn remembered, getting up. "Let's get packed up. First stop is Liam's. He doesn't have a phone, because he's really paranoid... doesn't like any gadgets that might be able to track him. So we can't really call him. I mean we could always call his son, but him Liam are nearly never together anyway. I have a hunch on where he might be... Besides the point, go get packed up!"

I didn't waste another moment speaking, instead, rushing to the back room to grab my already packed bag and tossed in a few pieces of jerky that I had made from the deer as well as some fruits.

Zayn did the same with his bag, minus the meat. When we got into Zayn's car, Zayn tossed his phone at me, "call up the people that I mentioned earlier. They're in my contacts."

"Um..." I stared at his phone for a moment, scrolling through his contact list, however none of the names really jumped out at me. "Remind me the names again?"

He sighed, "you really are useless when it comes to remembering things. Paul Higgins and Josh Devine."

I looked for Josh first since his name is before Paul's. Sighing, I clicked on his name and called him. The phone rang for awhile before a sleepy sounding person answered.

"Heyo Z, what's up?"

"It's Louis, actually and-"

"Louis? Who the Hell is this?" He cut me off, sounding suddenly very much awake now.

Sighing, I answered again, "Louis, I said this to you already. Now-"

Again, he cut me off, "yes, I know your name, but who are you to Zayn?"

"His partner, now would you let me-"

(AGAIN), he cut into my sentence, "yeah right, Zayn doesn't swing that way anymore. And besides, he very clearly told everyone that he'd never settle down, that hunting would be his whole life."

"Would you just shut the fuck up and let me talk Josh?" I exploded, losing my patient, "you're starting to remind me of a certain someone." I mumbled the last part, with thoughts of Alan in mind.

He was silent and finally mumbled an answer, "okay, go ahead."

"Thank you." I regained my cool, "I'm a hunter as well." I ignored Zayn's rude snort. "Zayn and I have a very big hunt and we need some back up with this one."

"Ah I see now. I'm guessing that Zayn's driving right now. Uhm yeah sure, I just finished a hunt earlier, but if it's big, then I don't mind giving up some of my sleep. Where's our rendezvous point?" He asked.

I glanced over at Zayn and mouthed out the word 'rendezvous'.

"Lebanon, Kansas, right at the sign," Zayn said and I relayed the message.

"That's a bit out of the way from where I am right now... but... I suppose that if it's for Z then I can." He made up his mind. "I can make it there in two days time."

"Okay, thank you so much for your time," I hung up.

Zayn chuckled, "you're cop side is showing."

I frowned, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"'Thank you so much for your time,'" he repeated my sentence.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with being polite. If you were wondering, Josh is coming. Now I'm going to call Paul, so I suggest that you shut up." I said, calling Paul now.

He immediately picked up and spoke firmly, "yeah?" There were growls in the background.

"Zayn and I need help on a big hunt, can you-"

"Yup," he said, grunting as there was a pain filled howl in the background.

"Meet us at Lebanon, Kansas at-"

"Yeah okay," there was a beep as he hung up.

I pursed my lips, "do you think he's okay? He just suddenly hung up."

"He's good, probably busy right now, he usually is." Zayn answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"Well okay then, good to know," I mumbled, choosing to stare out of the window, knowing that this was going to be quite a long ride.

The only time that I've been on such a long ride was probably when Harry and I moved. Yep. We moved out of my apartment.

"Louis, I'm not home all of the time to help you out and protect you and it scares me a bit knowing that you're here semi-crippled with no escape. I mean what are you going to do if we have another incident like we did with the werewolf, wait for the elevator? And there's so many stairs here, so you can fall and get really hurt and I won't be there to catch you." Harry spoke honestly one day.

I pursed my lips, thinking back to the night when Harry had placed that kiss upon my forehead, "and what are you trying to suggest?"

"We should move. It'll only be temporary and I already have a place where we could go if you'd like to." Harry spoke, choosing each of his words carefully.

"Harry, this is an important place to me. Ed helped me move into here, and we shared so many memories here. One time Simon came over just to see how I was doing when I was feeling particularly down one day. I have so many bad memories here, but I have good ones here too, because this was where Ed would cheer me up by watching The Walking Dead with me or play my favorite song. This was where I introduced you to The Walking Dead. Har, this is an important place to me," I answered very truthfully.

"I know and understand that, Lou. That's why I said that it's only temporary, until you get back onto your feet, literally of course. It's important that I know you're going to be safe while I'm not around." Harry stated sincerely, and gently took my hands into his very much larger ones.

Sighing and looking down at our hands I shook my head, a slight smile on my face. "I don't know how you do it, but I guess, yeah. We could move to that place for a bit of time. Just promise me that we'll come back here if I don't like it there?"

"Anything you want Lou," Harry smiled at me. "Thank you so much for understanding. You're genuinely important to me and I just don't want to lose you."

Little did he know that was the exact thing that was going to happen not too long after that conversation, only in a different way.

I blinked and looked over at Zayn, "can you turn on the radio?"

"Nope." Zayn said, popping the p as he didn't even spare me a glance.

Pursing my lips, I looked at my phone's charge. It'd be fine for now at eighty-nine percent, so I plugged my earphones into my phone and turned on Heathens by Twenty Pilots with thoughts of Harry running through my mind as I was lulled into a gentle sleep.

When I woke up, my eyes were wide and dilated, I'm pretty sure that I looked a wreck in general. My dream, of course was quite brutal. Harry had been evil with literal red glowing eyes, and let's just say that he hadn't treated me quite well, especially after I had left him and came back. Not even bothering to pull down the truck mirror, I instead ran a shaky hand through my hair once, then twice. I looked over at Zayn, "how much time until we're at Liam's?"

Zayn glanced over at me out of the corner of his eye, "well you look like shit. But it's a good thing you woke up because we're going to be there in like ten minutes and I was about to wake you up anyway."

"Well then," I looked down at my phone that was on the floor by my feet unharmed, however my flower earbuds suffered a different fate. Unfortunately for me, they were all mangled and one of the earbuds were missing, having been pulled off. "Shit," I cursed quietly. However, there was no time for tears as I was about to meet a new actively hunting hunter.

Sighing, I unplugged my earbuds from my phone and stuffed the wires into one pocket, then my phone in the other pocket.

Deciding that it was probably best, I pulled down the mirror and was horrified to find that there was dried spittle all down my chin. A profuse amount of crust was present in the corners of my eyes, it almost looked like I had pink eye, (which I have had before) my bloodshot eyes added to that effect.

When I got pink eye, I was in the orphanage and let's just say that the conditions weren't all that well, which was how I contracted the infection. It had hurt so badly and itched, however, to hide that I had it, the woman running the orphanage placed an eye patch over my eye. She didn't want to pay for eye drops, and didn't want a social worker to take away her one source of income, the orphanage. When school asked her about my eye patch, she made up the excuse that I had a lazy eye that made it difficult for me to pay attention. Boy was that woman an ace liar. When the infection didn't go away after a month (instead only getting worse) she dug into her drawers and administered expired eye drops to my eyes. It hurt, but I got over it, and after another couple of weeks it healed up.

I quickly wiped away all traces of the spit as well as the eye crust. Despite my previous actions, strands of my hair was sticking up this way and that. Thankfully, it no longer looked like I had pink eye, but now I look like a drug dealer. Quite frankly, I think that the pink eye was better. Maybe I'd scare away all the vampires with the infection.

I spent the next few minutes smoothing back my hair and laying the strands in their rightful places.

Finally, I looked like I only just woke up, which I had.

I thankfully had a couple of minutes to spare, which Zayn decided to take up.

"You talk in your sleep, you know." Zayn said to break the silence.

I froze, I've never been told that before. That was exactly what I answered back.

"I could understand why. You have sick dreams, man. No one wants to tell you that. I didn't for awhile. I guess that I just wanted to be honest for once." Zayn said, focusing his gaze on the road ahead still.

"Yeah, I know that my dreams are sick... what... did I say?" I asked hesitantly.

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to know." Zayn stated with a humorless chuckle, "in fact, I'm trying to forget it myself."

After that I chose not to push the topic any further.

As Zayn pulled into someone's driveway, a certain scene played in front of my eyes.

Harry had pulled up into the driveway of what was going to be our permanent house for a few months.

In the back of the car there were a couple of suitcases as well as various bags.

The house was beautiful, and it being stationed with a lake in the back yard sure helped with that effect. All around us there was woods, yet the house stood in the clearing between the trees and the lake.

"You stay in the car, I'm going to unpack," Harry said gently as he stepped out of the car.

I didn't say anything and stared at the lake house. The place was apparently Harry's. He said that the moment he had enough money to buy it, he did. It's not really where he stays, but he said that he gets a sense of home when he's there. The only reason he bought the house was in case of emergency, well according to him anyway.

I guess that this sort of counts as an emergency.

On our way here, Harry was talking about the woods and how he'd show me all the secret paths in and out of them.

It was just about evening, I knew that I'd be excited to see the breath taking view of the moon and especially stars over the lake.

Around three in the morning, Harry and I were still outside sitting on the shore playing truth or dare. Believe it or not, I find it difficult to fall asleep in new places, as it was just plain weird and I didn't know the house as well.

We were laughing loudly, it was something that we were able to do because no one is really around except for us. We're both sitting up and Harry has an arm around my waist to make sure I wouldn't fall over. All of Harry's dares pretty much sucked, and mine were definitely ace.

"I can't believe you made me do that!" I exclaimed, causing Harry to burst into another round of laughter.

"I can," Harry joked and winked at me.

"Oh I know that you can. Stop laughing at me!" I exclaimed again as Harry laughed louder.

"I-I c-can't! Y-you're f-f-ace was too fu-nny!" He continued.

"Fine then, Harry truth or dare?" I asked.

Of course, any normal person would have said truth, but of course Harry said dare. In fact, that's really all that he's been choosing. I sighed, trying to think up a good dare.

My eyes glanced from his hand around my waist, to his lips smiling widely, 

"I..." I mumbled the rest of my sentence.

"What?" Harry rose an eyebrow.

"I..." this time I trailed off, not sure if I was ready to say it. However, this is Harry we're talking about, so I calmed myself and said it. "I dare you to kiss me."

Harry had a shocked expression on his face and I immediately looked down in embarrassment. Of course he wouldn't do it.

A large warm hand placed itself at my jaw and gently tilted my head upwards so that I was looking at Harry's face.

"Okay, I accept," Harry said, leaning in slightly, his eyes glanced to my lips, "as long as you're sure you're okay with this."

All I did was nod, staring at his lips before looking up into his eyes.

No words were spoken after that as Harry placed his hand in my hair at the back of my head instead of at my jaw. It was the same hand that he used to gently pull my head closer to his and close the gap between our lips.

Just like that our lips were touching.

My heart began to pound out of my chest.

For a moment, Harry held his mouth there and I thought that he was going to pull away. However after that moment was over, Harry began to slowly move his lips against mine as if to guide my own. My face grew warm as my own trembling lips began to comply with the simple motions. Once Harry was sure that I was more comfortable, he pressed his mouth harder against mine and began moving his lips faster against mine. His fingers lightly pulled at my hair, causing for me to elicit a light moan.

Just for a moment, Harry gasped and paused in his actions, yet he instantly started them again. However, this time around, Harry opened his mouth slightly so that he could gently nip at my lip, earning a moan of slight pain on my part.

I was shocked to find that it actually felt more pleasurable than not. A tremble went through my body from the cold as a gust of wind blew our hair everywhere, and Harry nibbling at my lip definitely played a role in the tremor. Harry held me closer to him, shielding me from the cold. Though recalling it now, I don't think that I've ever been so warm before.

To my surprise, I felt Harry's tongue force its way past my lips. The effect was dizzying and caused me to place my palm against his shoulder to steady myself. He ran his tongue gently against my teeth as if it were foreshadowing his next moves. I gasped and warmth spread throughout my entire being when I felt his warm tongue gingerly petting at my own. That was when I pulled away.

A thin line of spit connected us still, which I quickly wiped away.

I looked down instead of at Harry, knowing that he was probably disappointed.

Harry's hand disappeared from my hair, yet the arm at my waist didn't. That was the arm that he used to pull me into his chest. Unfortunately, that was also when I became aware of the tent in my jeans and Harry was aware of it as well. My face turned into a deeper shade of red as Harry ignored it and carefully hugged me, his chin rested on my shoulder and I did the same to his shoulder.

"It's okay, Lou," Harry rasped into my ear quietly.

We stayed like that for a few moments before Harry pulled away from the hug to stand up, helping me to my feet.

"How about we call it a night?" Harry decided.

I nodded agreeingly and spoke lowly myself, "yeah."

Harry and I still slept in the same bed that night, but let's just say that he kept to his side and I strictly kept to mine.


	5. Part One: The Curtain Closes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An: Hiya lovely people!
> 
> Yes, yes I am late in updating, thanks for noticing! But I have a good reason! My sister's birthday was on Tuesday and I didn't have my computer yesterday, so here's your update today!
> 
> But first the QotD!
> 
> QotD: Do you have any siblings? If so, are they older or younger and how many? If you don't, do you want siblings or not?
> 
> My Answer: I have four younger siblings, two brothers and two sisters.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

It's been about two weeks since Harry and I moved into his lake house, hence a couple of weeks since the whole 'kissing' incident.

We haven't really brought it up, nor have we done anything to act further on it.

Besides the matter, Harry and I have been hard at work training my legs again. Despite the training, I feel that I haven't progressed really, as I still need to rely on my crutches.

Right now Harry's at work, so I'm frusteratedly sitting on the couch staring at wall while listening to my downloaded music with my old flower earbuds. Believe it or not, I've actually had them for years. I just don't use them often enough for them to break and I do my best to treat them carefully.

I miss watching The Walking Dead on Netflix.

Harry doesn't have a tv.

Harry doesn't have Netflix either.

I sighed and flipped through the music on my phone. Technically I could download Netflix on my new phone, but Harry doesn't have Wifi here either, so it'd take forever to download and stream something.

A familiar slew of guitar strumming filled my ears as a familiar song came on and I looked down at my phone, recognizing the song immediately as Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. Slightly, I chuckled, suddenly remembering when the song had been on the radio when I first met Harry. I denied liking the song because I was too stuck up to say that I did.

That evening as Harry and I sat at his table eating take out Thai food, I decided to bring it up.

"Remember when I said that I didn't like the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol?" I asked between bites.

"Yeah, of course I do. It was the most horrifying moment of my life," he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, "well I lied about that."

"Oh I knew that already." He shrugged nonchalantly and took another bite of food.

"But how?" I asked, baffled that he knew already.

"Louis, I know what songs you have downloaded on your phone, remember? Why would you have a song that you don't like on there?" He pointed out.

I thought a moment and nodded, "that's true... then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I thought that it was cute to watch you act like you didn't like the song." Harry answered truthfully.

I choked on my bite of food, resulting an a ton of coughing, and I turned red as I drank from my water glass,  
"Harry don't say things like that when I'm eating."

"But it's not like it was anything inappropriate. I strive to only tell you the truth," Harry shrugged and gave me a half smile.

A week later, Harry and I laid in bed. It's early in the morning and neither of us have slept a wink. We spent the night stargazing as we always do. This was almost a De ja vu moment from the after the kiss.

As always, I was on my back, and Harry was on is side facing me, talented fingers stroking through my hair.

It has grown quite long, I should probably ask Harry to cut it sometime.

I turned my torso slightly so that I was able to face Harry, staring into his eyes.

Harry grinned slightly at me, "you good?"

I nodded, "can't sleep. You?"

"I know the feeling." Harry paused, studying me closely for a moment before continuing, "what're you thinking about?"

"Kissing you, again." I stated bluntly.

The stroking of Harry's hand through my hair paused a moment before continuing, seemingly unfazed. "Oh really? All good thoughts I hope."

"Of course... I actually liked the first one... I just freaked out a bit because it was my first kiss and I didn't know what to do." I said truthfully.

"Lou, I wouldn't have used my tongue if I knew that... You should've said that. Boy do I feel like a bastard now..." Harry chuckled humorlessly.

"Harry, I didn't mind that much," I shrugged, face heating up. Thank goodness it's dark in this room, so he couldn't see.

"Oh really? That's good to know."

I pursed my lips a moment, "if... if I asked you to, would you... would you do it again?"

"Only if you said please," Harry answered jokingly.

For a good four minutes, I stayed silent. I'm pretty sure that Harry thought that I had fallen asleep at my lack of an answer. "Would you kiss me, please?" I quietly inquired.

A verbal answer wasn't given on Harry's part. Instead, he cupped my jaw in his hand and I was aware of his closeness to me as I felt his breath against my own lips. For only a moment, Harry hesitated before he pressed his mouth to mine. This time, the sparks flew as I focused on just Harry and I without any distractions.

That moment was something beautiful, and maybe even a little something perfect as well.

A couple more weeks later, Harry and I have shared a total of three kisses on the lips, five kisses on the forehead, and two kisses on the cheek, though they were all pretty much platonic.

Thankfully, I'm pretty much back on my feet. I can walk without the assistance of crutches, not quite run yet, but I'm fine with just walking.

Harry's home early from work and he's been on the phone in his bedroom. He hardly ever uses his bedroom as he usually sleeps in bed with me, so I of course was curious about what he could be talking about and to whom.

I willed myself not to walk to his door to eavesdrop no matter how much I wanted to.

However, curiosity got the best of me as I walked to Harry's closed bedroom door, leaning heavily on the wall so that I wouldn't place too much weight on my feet.

"But Li, I just feel that Louis deserves to know about my past and also the apprentice system. It'll eventually affect him." Harry said, sounding genuinely upset.

My ears perked up in interest. Who is this 'Li' person? Harry only calls me by my nickname. And why the Hell wouldn't he be able to tell me about these things.

There was a pause and a sigh from Harry's part, "fine. Yeah, I guess that I won't then... he's already been through enough I guess." Harry said, sounding even more upset than before.

My heart absolutely broke that Harry was still keeping secrets from me, yet was able to clearly speak about them to a person who has nothing to do with me.

Feeling betrayed, I pursed my lips and went to my room. I took out a backpack and packed a few changes of clothes, my phone, my phone charger, my flower earbuds, an envelope of the printed pictures from Ed, Ed's CD, a few granola bars, a bottle of water, and whatever money was in my wallet.

As Harry was still talking on his phone, I walked right out of the door with my bag and into the woods.

I can honestly say that moment was the only point in my life when I didn't care as to where I was going.

All I cared about was getting away from anyone and anything affiliated with hunting.

Coincidentally, a couple of days later, I ran into the one thing that I thought I was running away from. I tried to run away from hunting, but hunting only ran into me.

I was still in the woods, sucking on a mint leaf that I had found, however I quickly spit that out when I was pounced on top of by the one thing that I did not want to see ever again, a vampire.

Of course I wasn't smart enough to keep any weapons on me, and I was confused as to why the fuck it was out in plain day light.

Not knowing what else to do, I screamed at the top of my lungs as the vampire nuzzled it's cold pale nose against my neck, "You smell good, I can't wait to bite into you." The vampire opened its mouth to take its bite and I closed my eyes tightly waiting for the pain.

However, that pain never came. In fact, the weight of the vampire was lifted from my body entirely.

There was a hiss, which I guess came from the vampire and I sat up to see a beheaded vampire next to a familiar figure.

"Oh it's you," we both said at the same time.

The caramel skinned man helped me up, "I'm guessing that you remember me." Zayn joked.

"Of course, and vise versa on my part." I said, out of breath.

"Same answer here. Has anyone told you that you scream like a girl?"

I chuckled, yet wasn't as offended as I thought I'd be, "no, but I've been told that I'd make a pretty girl."

"You know what? You're not so bad for a cop."

"Does that mean we can hunt together?" I asked, deciding that Harry was the one I was running from. After all, hunting had been something that I wanted to do, but Harry was the one who wouldn't let me. How could I turn down such an opportunity, especially when fate has made it clear that this is what I'm supposed to do?

Zayn flat out laughed at me. "You'd need some proper training, but I suppose that I could help you out a bit with that. Let me be honest here, you're an excellent cop, but you're absolute shit as a hunter."

And well, that's pretty much the story of how Zayn and I ended up partnering up, and also how I left Harry.

Not saying I made the right decision, but I will say that I made the decision that felt right.

"Hey, Louis, are you ready to go see Liam?" Zayn asked, looking over at me.

I sighed and nodded, "yeah sure."

"Well then, go on and get out of the truck," The raven haired man chuckled. That was when I noticed that Zayn was already holding my door open for me to get out.

"Oh. Thanks," I mumbled, unbuckling the seat and climbing out.

"Don't get used to me holding your door open for you," Zayn chuckled and slammed the door shut.

I rolled my eyes, "of course not.

Zayn took the lead, being the first one to Liam's door. He clicked on a small inconspicuous button beneath the front window and kept to standing away from the doormat.

"Why are we standing so far away from the door? Does he have a ton of secret booby traps just in the doorway?" I joked.

"Yes actually. It's unbelievable how creative this guy is. It's good to have him on your good side to use any of his new weapons." Zayn answered.

I hummed slightly in answer and a man with a buzz cut opened the front door. He studied Zayn closely with squinted eyes.

"What's the password?" The man inquired, I guess that his name was Liam.

"A.J.'s airplane joint." Zayn said lowly.

"Mother's maiden name?"

"Brannan." Zayn answered immediately without hesitation.

"Favorite thing to do in passing time?" He questioned.

Zayn sighed and answered in a mumble, "drawing."

Liam eyed him suspiciously even still before nodding, "come in."

Without hesitation, Zayn walked into the house, but I stayed where I was, not wanting to set off any traps.

Liam glanced at me before his eyes flashed with recognition before going back to normal, "well what are you waiting for; you too."

"You don't need any of my information or anything?" I asked unbelievingly.

"Name, Louis William Tomlinson. Mother's maiden name Poulston. And you have no passing time to do things." Liam rattled off immediately.

Am I just supposed to trust this guy who knows all this information about me? "But, don't I need to say the password or something?"

"No. Zayn just said it." Liam rolled his eyes impatiently before his eyes looked at the street behind me as a car drove by. "Hurry. Get in now." There was a tone of urgency in his voice.

I quickly walked to the front door and stepped inside.

The door was slammed then locked with multiple locks by Liam.

"You finally made it in," Zayn rolled his eyes.

"Why does this guy know everything about me?" I asked quietly.

"Because there's this thing called Google," Liam said from behind me.

I quickly turned around. "O-oh," I stammered stupidly.

"Now that we've got that settled, how about I get to the reason why we're here." Zayn decided to cut in.

"Yeah, I'd like to know what's so important that you nearly had to blow my cover." Liam said in a normal tone, yet seeming slightly pissed off even still from his stance.

"We've got this really big hunt that Louis and I need help with. I've even contacted Josh and Paul to help out." Zayn spoke.

"Then why do you need my help?" Liam asked.

A slight chuckle could be heard on Zayn's part, "because it's just that big of a hunt, and super important too. I know what I need to give in order to get you to hunt with us, and I don't even mind it because it's really that important."

Give? What would we possibly need to give up?

"Speaking of payment, you know my terms." Liam said, crossing my arms.

Zayn rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah, I know. Our location just in case we happen to turn on you. We're staying in that old cabin in the woods where H and I used to stay when we hunted for a bit of time. You remember where it is right?"

Liam nodded, "of course, I have a better memory than what you think. Didn't take that many hits to the head. So what's this hunt anyway?"

"Vampires." Zayn said shortly.

This time, Liam rolled his eyes, "always vamps with you." He started to go around his house picking up various objects that I couldn't quite see.

"They have this facility where they're harvesting tons of blood from humans I think." Zayn continued, unfazed by Liam's remark. "The harvested blood is being distributed to vampires all over. It's really organized and there's a ton of these different facilities all over the country. I have the location of the main facility and it's in Lebanon, Kansas."

"So you want to take that one down in order to get rid of this entire company is what you're trying to say, right?" Liam clarified

"Right," Zayn answered.

"And do you have any idea where this place is specifically located and what we're actually going to do once we get there? I mean, I'm sure that this place isn't just hidden on plain sight it it's as enormous as you say it is." Liam pointed out, pausing in his actions.

"I have all the details figured out, so don't worry your pretty little head about it too much," Zayn winked at Liam, causing for Liam to roll his eyes. He went back to picking up various objects to place them into a bag. That's when I realized that he must've been packing. "Just tell me when you're done with packing."

"Yeah yeah," Liam mumbled, not even pausing with his actions this time as I heard a thump from upstairs. I glanced upwards, however the other two decided to ignore it as if it was perfectly normal.

Thirteen silence filled awkward minutes passed by before Liam had completely finished his packing. During that spare time, Zayn spent his time going through his own bag, taking out several weapons and triple checking each of them, as if he was taking inventory and making sure that each was fit for a long and treacherous fight.

"I've got dead man's blood already," Zayn said to Liam as he caught a glimpse of what Liam had in his hands. All the while, Zayn was putting his weapons away, sensing that Liam was probably nearly done with packing.

"So?" Liam questioned simply, placing two large jars of dark looking blood into a special padded case that already had a bunch of unused syringes inside.

Zayn opened and closed his mouth once, twice, then even a third time before settling on merely shaking his head and displaying a half smile. "Indeed so, I suppose."

During those thirteen minutes I studied both Liam and Zayn, but mostly Liam as he is someone that I do not know all too well. I need to know what sort of approach I should have around him.

I needed to know that he was a reliable hunter who had my back and wouldn't selfishly desert me if there were to be a herd of vampires, or something else even worse. But then again, I also need to know if I should stay out of the way when he's fighting or if he doesn't mind a bit of help, sort of similar to Zayn.

Liam seems quite guarded and cautious.  
"Well that's because I sort of am," Liam spoke and I blinked.

Zayn glared at Liam and scolded, "you'll scare him. You said you wouldn't do that anymore. How about we get in the truck then."

"What do you mean by that," I asked Liam, ignoring Zayn entirely.

"You were speaking out loud, so I answered," Liam shrugged casually and slung his duffel bag over his shoulder. "Now, like Zayn said, let's get going then."

I bought it and headed out behind Zayn, whom was holing the front door open, yet in front of Liam. Zayn and I hopped into the truck as Liam stayed behind to lock all of the many locks on his door.

"Nope," Zayn said to me, I turned to him in confusion, halfway done with buckling up my seatbelt, however I froze.

"What?"

"You can't have an outside seat as long as Liam is riding with us. He's quite claustrophobic, so he always gets dibs on the outside seat whether you like it or not." Zayn explained to me.

Sighing in annoyance, I moved to sit in the middle instead and buckled up as Zayn directed me.

'Why do I need to move over for this guy that I don't even know? It's not like he's done anything for me yet. So what if he's claustrophobic; I'd rather not be stuck between two guys right now. Just think about it! If I wanted to text Ed, I couldn't without someone looking over my shoulder and ogling at my phone.' I thought in my head.

Beside me, I became aware of Liam buckling his seatbelt, eyebrows pinched into an angry scowl and a dark blush was quite present in splotches across his face.

"I was kept in a cage for the first ten years of my life by a man who wanted to use me for my powers." Liam said in short clipped words. Though his gaze was kept outside the rolled down window, I knew that the words were meant for me. "So please excuse my claustrophobia." He said, sarcasm dripped with his every angered word.

I gulped and paled as I turned to look at Zayn for an explanation, which he didn't notice as he was busy backing out of Liam's driveway.

"If you want a question answered then you need to ask it. Zayn isn't a mind reader like I am." Liam mumbled lowly as Zayn continued driving.

Zayn glanced at Liam, at the road, at me, then back at the road. "Well, I guess that the jig is up then... Liam is part djinn, so he can read minds, but he can't play your desires in your mind."

I know what a djinn (or jinn) is, Zayn and I have encountered one before, in fact.

For those who don't know what a djinn is, they're basically like a genie gone somewhat wrong. They can read your mind to figure out your deepest wishes, hopes, and dreams, then they cause that to play out in your mind as if it's your reality. However, in real life, the djinn leaves you for dead, and there's always the possibility that they'll suck your energy from you while you're in that comatose state.

So yeah, djinn aren't always good.

I peeked over at Liam and figured that he was a good djinn since he hasn't tried to bring any harm to Zayn nor I.

"You clearly weren't listening," Liam spat. "I'm only part djinn. Father was, mother wasn't, father genes are more likely to be prominent in hunters, especially in cases such as mine."

"Oh," I decided to answer simply, not really knowing what else to say after that.

Liam sighed and reached into his duffel bag to pull out a set of headphones and an ipod. He did what any person would do with a set of headphones and an ipod, listen to music. Once he had the headset plugged in, he turned his music up loud enough for me to be able to hear it.

I looked over at Zayn, "why so loud?" I asked him figuring Liam couldn't hear me because of the headphones.

"So he can't hear our thoughts," Zayn answered with a slight smile.

"Oh," I answered again, sneaking a peek over at Liam only to find his brown eyes gazing back at me from his propped up arm. Quickly, I decided to focus my gaze back on Zayn, "how much longer until we get there?" I asked.

Zayn looked out the windshield, focusing on a sign that was further ahead. "About roughly four hours, really depends on traffic."

I groaned loudly, well that's just fucking great!

"Heard that," Liam mumbled, though I wasn't quite sure if he had been the one who said it, but I'm guessing that it was.

A whole hour and a half in the car was spent silently. I didn't speak, nor did I think. I just dully stared ahead through the windshield.

"Welp I needa take a piss, see you two rays of sunshine in a few," Zayn said, hopping out of the truck with his keys.

I hadn't looked over at Liam again after that one time, but I suspected that he hadn't taken his eyes off of me during the full hour and a half. However, once Zayn was out of sight, Liam calmly sat up, stopped his music, placed his ipod and headphones in his duffel bag, then he zipped up the large bag.

Liam cleared his throat and I took that as a sign to look over at him. His face was gratefully less red and there was no longer a scowl on his face, but instead a tired look.

"Hi," he said quietly, yet it was loud enough for me to hear.

"Hi," I copied the word, not sure what else I should say.

He sighed and gazed outside instead of at me as he seemed to be deep in thought, "listen, I've forgiven you so don't worry about the stupid seat incident, okay?"

"Okay." I nodded carefully.

"My anger that I was was feeling was only partly because of you, the rest was me." Liam said honestly, then went on to explain. "Usually I have this mind reading thing under control. I mean could you imagine if you were able to hear every single person's thoughts that they're thinking all the time? It gets quite loud after awhile. Usually... usually I don't hear people unless if I want to. It's just that recently I... it's all just been quite different."

I pursed my lips, "different how?"

The brunette thought a very long moment, messing a bit with the growing scruff on his chin as he thought.

"All... monsters are somehow connected by an invisible bond because they all mostly come from the same place, would you believe me if I said this?" He chose to look at me while speaking this time.

I nodded, "I mean it would make sense."

"Would you also understand if I said that all..." he looked back outside, searching for the right words, "human hybrids of monsters would be able to... sense that bond?"

I nodded again, "yeah, I understand, because they have some monster in them."

"Exactly. So if the monsters start to sense something's going to happen then-"

"So will you," I said quietly.

He nodded, glancing down at my lap as if he couldn't look me in the eyes that moment for what he was about to say next, "and that's why Zayn worries about me. Honestly, and of no offense at all to you, I'm one of the only people that he cares about because I know him."

"I understand. So, he'll also sense sort of if there's something wrong with you because he cares so much for you is what you're trying to say?" I asked, keeping my voice down as the window was still open.

"Exactly. So he also feels that something's.... off." Liam finally explained.

I slowly nodded.

"Don't tell him about what we talked about here, it'll only upset him."

"This is only between you and me," I reasoned with him as I heard the familiar small thuds from Zayn's boots against the pavement.

Zayn unlocked the truck doors and hopped back inside the vehicle, starting up the engine.

"Looks like you two made up," Zayn pointed out, noticing the no longer present headphones on Liam's part.

Liam nodded, "we had a man to man talk."

"Good then! Now that that's out of the way, Lebanon, Kansas here we come!"

/My ears rang loudly and I covered them, screaming for the person to stop.

In front of me there was a bright white light emanating from off of a dark figure and I recognized him immediately though I wasn't able to see their face. An evil laugh dully filled my ears alongside the piercing noise.

'My message is short, but it'll mean everything to you.' The voice spoke, the ringing quieted down as he spoke.

'What!?' I screamed at him. 'What could you possibly want from me!?'

'It's not what I want from you, but it's what you could possibly want from me.' He chuckled evilly.

'Wh-what d'you mean?' I asked, stuttering over my words.

'Oh, I just thought that you'd want to know who I am is all. I think that my name is much better than The Glowing Man that you've been calling me,' he chuckled in genuine humor.

'Who the Hell are you?' I whispered.

'Well that's what I've been trying to tell you, but you sort of aren't listening to me now are you?'

'Just tell me! I'm listening now!' I yelled, feeling an oncoming headache.

'Good to know that you're listening,' he sounded extremely excited. 'Now my name is the Dream Catcher. So much better than The Glowing Man garbage, am I right?' He laughed, seeming genuinely amused.

All I did was nod, not understanding what he found to be so funny.

'Now that I know that we both agree on something, I want you to wake up right now. It's getting sort of annoying to continue looking at your face without being able to kill you dead or something.'/

As I jolted awake, the Dream Catcher's laughs still echoed in my mind.

I looked over to the driver's seat to see Liam driving instead of Zayn. To my right, Zayn was asleep, snoring heavily against the window. In all earnestly, I was shocked to see Liam driving as Zayn doesn't even let me drive and I'm his partner in crime.

Well sort of crime...

I guess that Zayn must really trust Liam.

"You've started dreaming about Him too?" Liam asked gently.

I nodded, "who is he?"

He shook his head, "you really don't want to know, trust me."

"How much longer do we have?" I asked.

"Half an hour or something," Liam answered and I sighed in relief, glad that this trip was going to be over soon, not looking forward to sleeping in the truck.

True to his words, we arrived at the motel thirty minutes later and Zayn was still sleeping. Liam quietly got out of the truck quietly and carried Zayn out as if he'd done it before. I climbed out of the truck behind them and closed the door.

Liam motioned for me to stay outside and came out eight minutes later with a small fond smile on his face.

"Let's go meet the others at the sign, they should hopefully be there waiting," Liam said, hopping into Zayn's truck as he checked his watch.

The truck started up as Liam turned around and began to drive straight towards the 'Welcome to Lebanon' sign.

Liam parked Zayn's truck on the side or the road and we waited there in the moonlight from the full moon.

"Are they late?" I asked quietly.

"No, we're early," he answered, "I didn't want to stay at the motel and wake up Zayn."

"Makes sense," I nodded. There was a tap at my window and I saw a dark lanky figure. I looked over at Liam with an eyebrow raised and he nodded and motioned for me to lower the window, which I did.

"You being early would've been right if I hadn't shown up first." The person spoke in a familiar voice. I looked over the face, however all that I was able to make out were the person's yellow cat-like eyes from behind their hood. "Caught you off guard didn't I? I didn't think I'd be here either, but I didn't anticipate being in this form."

I glanced nervously over at Liam whom was smiling widely and I knew that this person was nothing that I needed to worry about. "It's been awhile Josh."

"Sure has Liam, where's Z?" Josh asked, "and who is this? I don't quite recognize his scent."

"At the motel already. He's been driving all day, so I wouldn't blame him. And I think that this individual is able to say his own name."

Josh's eyes shifted over to mine, "so?"

"I'm Louis," I answered.

"Ah, we spoke over the phone. I remember you now." Josh extended his hand for me to shake, which I did.

However, my heart skipped a beat as he pulled me closer to him while leaning into me and pressing his nose right at my neck. While he was there, he took a moment to sniff before releasing me and I quickly backed away from him, "what was that!?"

"I was only becoming more acquainted with your scent, that's what us werewolves do after all," he answered.  
That was when I noticed the faint whiskers apparent on his cheeks and the wolf ears that sat on top of the hood of his jumper. That was also when I noticed that what I initially thought were gloves on his hands was actually hair and he had quite long nails on his hands.

My eyes widened and I glanced quickly between Liam and Josh, "p-part werewolf right?" I asked nervously.

"Nope, fully. I just have really good control over my instincts." Josh assured me, "this is as much as I'll allow myself to change, not that I can help it. In case you haven't noticed..." he trailed off and nodded up to the sky, causing me to look up as well.

And there it was, low and behold, a very much full moon.

Of course I had noticed it earlier, but thought it insignificant.

"Oh... are you okay doing this right now?" I asked, knowing that a full moon could last for a few days and I'm not all too sure of just how in control he is of his inner wolf.

"I'm completely fine. I've spent decades to get the amount of control that I have over my instincts right now. Although, sometimes I do have the strong urge to howl right now." Josh offered.

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"No," Josh chuckled. "I don't really have the urge to howl at the moon, but anyway slide over and let me in."

Great, I have to sit in the middle once again...

"Actually, you need to sit in the middle," Liam chose that moment to speak up with a quick glance at me beforehand. "It's only fair because Louis was here first."

"But Liam-" Liam cut Josh off immediately with a single look. "Okay fine, guess it's better than the back." He grunted and didn't even wait for me to open my door. Taking the opportunity, he crawled through my open window, and to my surprise climbed right over me, then Liam, to get his whole body inside. Once that task was done, he took his rightful seat in the middle, not bothering to buckle up. "I take it we're waiting for Paul?"

Liam answered completely unfazed by the werewolf's previous actions, "well duh."

Josh shook his head, "that Paul is always late."

Suddenly, on Liam's window, there was a heavy knock that caused Josh to jump in his seat and bump his head on the ceiling of the truck.

Maybe he wouldn't have jumped so high if had his seatbelt on...

"And that, Josh, is the reason why we wear seatbelts," Liam said, winking subtly at me before rolling his window down, probably recognizing the person.

Josh rolled his eyes as he gingerly rubbed his ears that weren't as perky as they had been before.

"In?" The man asked gruffly.

"Hello to you too Paul," Liam said to the man, whom I figured to be Paul.

"Hi. In?" He repeated his initial question.

The brunette shook his head and motioned to the back of the truck where the trunk is, "no room up here, you need to sit in the back."

The man's face didn't change in the slightest as he nodded and shuffled to the side and climbed into the back of the truck, facing away from us.

"Do you have any bags by the way?" Liam turned to Josh and asked.

The werewolf shook his head, "nope. I hope you guys brought enough food for me since this is all so short notice. My weapons are on me along with anything that I /really/ need."

Liam groaned, "Louis, just as a life lesson, never trust a lazy werewolf to pack for himself, especially when it comes to food."

***

Intently, sat quietly watching as Josh and Paul bantered about something stupid. Liam was between the two and was trying to disengage their spat before a full out brawl or something broke out.

Of course, the pair was too into their argument to even spare Liam a single glance, so, as a result, Liam sat back into the couch cushion he was sitting on, completely giving up. His eyes caught mine and he shrugged.

"There are just some battles that you've gotta fight, and there are others that you don't need to." Liam said to me loudly over the two's loudness.

The five of us have been in Lebanon, Kansas for just about a day now. Liam shares a bed with Zayn in the motel. Josh and I share a bed; he moves around a lot so I usually end up sleeping in the bathtub. Lastly, Paul sleeps on the couch. I'm really not sure if he minds, much, he doesn't really complain.

Zayn has been sleeping the most, in fact, he just woke up a couple of hours ago and has been in the bathroom making himself presentable since then.

In my opinion, I think that he's taking a very long shit.

But then again, that is just my opinion.

Liam suddenly burst into a random fit of laughter, startling Paul and Josh from their argument. The brunette just continued to laugh and I was confused at first, however I soon blushed when I suddenly remembered Liam's... abilities.

Oh... oops...  
In that perfect moment of Liam laughing into the otherwise silent room, Paul and Josh sitting in complete confusion, and me blushing and kicking myself in the face (metaphorically of course), Zayn chose to burst out of the bathroom, looking freshly showered and brown eyes full of light and liveliness.

His brown eyes lit up that much more when they landed on Liam, "what a beautiful sound to hear so early in the morning."

Noticing that Zayn was out of the bathroom, Liam awkwardly cleared his throat and sobered up, though his face was still red, an effect of both the laughing and a certain something (someone) else.

"Yeah yeah," Liam mumbled, clearly uncomfortable, and sat up just a bit straighter.

"Good, everyone's eaten?" Zayn asked, looking at our faces.

I nodded, though it was a lie. Liam nodded as well, eyes flashing to me yet not commenting.  
"Well duh, what else do you think I did while I was waiting for you lazy asses to get up out of bed," Josh looked at me, "bathtub," he looked at Paul with a glare on his face, "and couch?"

"Ate," Paul nodded, looking at Zayn, ignoring Josh and completely past him.

"Whoa, just chill mate. Just needed to make sure you guys were ready to go over the game plan." Zayn explained.

"Now, I take it that you all know Louis," Zayn said, motioning towards me. "I expect you guys to play nice with him. He's one of us, part of the gang, now."

Paul looked at me, nodding briefly as he spoke choppily, "hi Louis."

I smiled slightly, waving at him from where I sat on top of Josh and I's bed, "hi Paul."

Paul nodded shortly again before focusing back on Zayn.

"Good then, now that introductions are out of the way, how about we get down to our plan. Come on Louis,"  
Zayn sat down cross legged at the worn coffee table in front of the couch.

I got down from the bed and sat with my legs beneath me on the stained carpeted rug next to Zayn.

"Okay, now..." Zayn trailed off as he dug into the front pocket of his travel bag. He took a couple of minutes before continuing after finding what he was looking for. "This," he spread out a piece of paper, "is a map of the facility we'll be breaking into. Apparently, it's the smallest, yet the hardest to find since it's underground. There are two entrances in," Zayn paused to take the time and point them out. "They are ladders-"

"Are there any guards?" Liam decided to ask.

Zayn didn't even pause to look at him, "I'm getting to that. There are about five hidden guards above ground, two at each ladder underground, and two for just about each room. There are seven rooms and twenty guards. Do you understand?" Zayn asked, looking directly at Liam.

I briefly glanced upwards to see Liam roll his eyes and ask sarcastically, "are you going to continue?" I looked back at the crudely drawn map.

"There's the living quarters for the humans where they're kept in cages," Zayn continued, pointing at the large room. To the left there's a room for broadcasting commercials as well as packaging blood. Between the two rooms, there's the main office where the vampires in charge stay. This is in the middle of the whole facility and probably where we want to go first because the keys for the cages are there. To access this room, there are ladders in the furthest corners of the rooms where the blood is kept. These lead underground to a set ot tunnels that lead to another ladder that goes up to the main office."

"You said that the vampires in charge are there, so they must be pretty strong. How are we dealing with them along with any guards that'll probably be there?" I decided to ask when Zayn stopped talking.

"I'll discuss that when we get there. I know that someone doesn't have an all too great memory," Zayn said with eyebrows risen in accusation towards Josh.

Josh sat up straighter at the accusation, "that is not true. I remember a lot more than what you remember, Malik. For instance, I remember that one time when you and Liam-"

"Alright there, there are two rooms that can also be accessed by tunnels from off the main office. One room is where they drain humans and run tests and the other is there they kill any humans that can't be used anymore. Our aim is to get in and bring down their whole operation. We're going to try and use as little violence as possible so our plan goes right. We'll enter using the back ladder since less vamps are there. We'll take out all the guards there, then get to the main office. When we get there, we do our thing , get the keys after that. Someone will get the humans out, preferably you Louis." Zayn looked at me as well as the other three whom were on the couch.

I clenched my jaw at the mention of my name and looked down in embarrassment.

Well this sucks... I hate being underestimated like this...

Zayn was the one who told the others to play nice since I'm one of them now, so why do I feel like Zayn is the one not following his own words?

"Is that okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," I nodded, still looking at my lap. What else what I supposed to say?

"Good then, one person will go the execution room and another will take care of anyone in the draining room. The other two... individuals will go to the second half of the facility and take out the rest of the vamps. We'll burn the place down no matter what."

"So basically, we get in through the back, take out the guards, get to main office, deal with lead vamps, we break off and do our own thing, get out, then burn the mother fucking place down. Am I right?" Josh repeated back.

"Yeah pretty much," Zayn answered, probably surprised that Josh had been listening at all.

"Told you I have a good memory," Josh said proudly.

"Yeah, well let's see you say that when we're actually enacting the plan." Zayn retorted.

***

Everything was going pretty well... well... until we got to the main office...

Liam was the first one up the ladder since he has the gadget that can shoot out dead man blood filled syringes. I was about to start up the ladder a couple seconds later, however, a scream from Liam caused for Zayn to push me out of the way and quickly scale up the ladder. That was a mistake, because it was my place, my task, to help out anyone who has been injured.

Josh, Paul, then I all quickly made our ways up the ladder to find Zayn whispering to a passed out Liam. There was a cut on his forehead from where he was losing blood. The substance was also trickling from his ears down his neck.

I suddenly stopped in my tracks when Zayn's words made it to my ears, "it's okay Li. You're going to be okay Li. Li Li please wake up."

The nickname struck me with familiarity and a one sided conversation went through my mind.

"But Li, I just feel that Louis deserves to know about my past and also the apprentice system. It'll eventually affect him." Harry's low words popped into my head.

Could this actually be the person Harry was talking to, Liam?

Liam's pain-filled bleary eyes opened, immediately landing on me guiltily.

That was the only confirmation that I needed to know that it was true. I clenched and unclenched my jaw repeatedly, not quite sure what I should do.

"Come on Louis!" Zayn yelled, shaking me by the front of my shirt, "now is not the fucking time for your crap. Take care of him right now!"

"Get off of me so I can!" I yelled, pushing him away and kneeling beside Liam. "What did they do?" I asked.

Liam looked at me in confusion.

What the fuck did they do? I wondered, rummaging through my bag.

"I don't know, but I can't freaking hear you except for in your mind!" Liam yelled sporadically.

My eyes widened and I nodded, 'that's okay, just calm down, I'll take care of this.' I thought in my head, only focusing on Liam, not on Zayn beating the shit out of the vampires, nor on Paul and Josh trying to hold Zayn back and failing.

"One of the stronger vampires did this to me. He got into my mind and my ears started ringing and made my head hurt then he threw me against the wall." Liam said lower this time.

There might be internal damage, I frowned and took out some disinfectant to apply to Liam's cut forehead. I quickly placed a large bandage over the cut then used peroxide to clean the oozing blood from Liam's ears and neck despite his hissing sounds.

'Sorry,' I thought so that he could hear.

Not knowing what else to do about his ears, I decided to carefully stuff three cotton balls into each of them.

'Does it still hurt?' I asked him.

"Yes," he said.

I gave him an aspirin and he gratefully took it dry.

With my help, Liam was upright again.

"Go help them," Liam said, handing his backpack off to me.

I nodded, showing him that I understood and saw that one of the more powerful looking vampires had two empty syringes stuck in him, was out cold. Another one of the stronger vampires, whom had a half full syringe in his arm was still quite adamantly fighting Zayn. Analyzing and picking up on quick details, I soon came up with a plan to get to where we need to go.

I saw Paul had a slim vampire in the clutches of his strong arms with a blade against their throat as he fought against any vamps that came up to him.

'Liam, can you tell Paul not to hurt the vamp he's holding right now?' I asked, I heard Liam ask exactly what I had asked him to say.

Aside from the powerful vamp on the floor, there were four others along with five vamps who looked like guards. Zayn, Josh, and Paul were just barely fending them off.

Quickly, I opened Liam's backpack to find the specially padded case. I opened the case and a jar that was half-way full of dead man's blood. I took out six syringes and filled them each quickly with the substance before sealing the jar and closing the case. The syringes were gently tucked unto my cargo pants pockets, however, I had one on hand just in case.

There was no time to reload Liam's specially made gadget.

I crawled my way between everyone's moving legs and looked up to see Josh clawing and pushing away at two of the powerful vampires. Reaching into my pocket, I took out another syringe before buttoning my pocket closed.

One of the vampires took no notice to me as he held Josh's arms firmly behind the werewolf's back. The other vampire smirked as he proceeded to punch and kick at Josh. That was when I took the opportunity to forcefully inject a full syringe to the vampire behind Josh.

Josh fell backwards as his support suddenly lost all coordination. The second vampire, being in the middle of a kick, lost his balance and fell over. I injected that vampire with the second syringe.

"They take two injections to be completely unconscious," Josh said breathily as he wiped away some blood that had dripped onto his lip from his nose.

"Yeah I know, that's why I brought these," I took two more full syringes out of my pockets and injected the two immobile creatures once again. "Go over to Liam and take my bag, he'll help you with your nose and whatever else. He can't hear, so only speak in your head."

"Well shit," Josh mumbled as I handed off my bag to him.

The fourth powerful vamp was approaching Paul with blood lust in his eyes. Quickly, I took out my last two syringes, ran up to my second to last target, then jumped onto his back, catching him off guard.

The vampire growled and scratched at me with his long claw-like nails, however, I wrapped my legs around his waist, reached up, and (at the very same time) jabbed the two syringes into either side of his neck.

When he went down, I tumbled with him, though I shakily stood again. There was too much adrenaline rushing through my body to care about any injuries that I had sustained. I flashed a brief smile at Paul. The other three vampires that were surrounding him paled even further as their red and purple eyes landed on me, realizing what I had done.

"You can let him go, Paul," I said gently, motioning to the shaking vampire in his grip.

Paul nodded and let go of the slim vamp, pushing him away.

I turned towards Zayn to see him still dealing with the very last powerful vampire.

Carefully, I inched myself towards my last target and reached up on my tippy toes when I was behind him to push down the plunger in the syringe the rest of the way. That effectively caused him to cry out in pain and collapse on the ground, clawing at his back to take the syringe out.

I did him the favor and took it out, tossing the empty syringe at a very baffled and beaten Zayn. Even still, I turned the pale creature over onto his back instead of his side. From Zayn's very own hands, I snatched his very large knife and kneeled down so that it hovered above his Adam's apple.

The vampire beneath me struggled a great deal, yet wasn't strong enough to pull me off in this state.

"D-don't hurt him," the slim guard said from where he stood, yet was still trembling.

"Oh I won't as long as you let my friends and I through," I said. "We'll let them all go, in fact, if you let us go through. If you don't then..." I purposely trailed off as I applied pressure to the knife, allowing for a bit of blood to trickle to the floor, causing for the vampire to hiss.

"Okay you can go," he said shakily, sounding close to tears.

"And you three all agree with this?" I asked, motioning to the other three guards.

They quickly nodded, looking about ready to piss their pants.

"Good then, Paul, can you inject this one again?" I handed Zayn back his weapon and he surprised me by charging at the remaining conscious vampires with his weapon. I couldn't even stop him from brutally beheading each of the four body guard vamps.

"You- you never said that they'd be kept safe as well," Zayn explained as he panted.

Paul stood up from where he had been kneeling to inject the vamp, "true."

"Good now," Zayn said regaining his lost composure, "how about we continue our plan before these fuckers wake up. Louis go on and find the keys."

"I have the keys!" Liam yelled. "I want Louis to go help with clearing out the other vamps! I'll take care of the humans!"

Zayn glared at Liam, and Liam glared right back before Zayn rolled his eyes, nodding as he did, "okay fine."

With my help once again, Liam made it up the ladder and we went our separate ways.

Zayn took care of the execution room while Josh took care of the draining room. Paul followed me and helped me take out the rest of the guards as well as any workers in the broadcasting room.

Paul and I sent out a little broadcast of our own, letting everyone know that this facility is done for and if they continue their own production, we'd find out and come end them as well.

As Paul and I made our way out, I felt a sense of accomplishment take over me, however I felt as if I hadn't finished quite everything as I started to smell smoke all too quick.

There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized that Zayn, Josh, Liam, and a ton of other people were all at the top, however, not one of the powerful vamps could be seen.

I paled and quickly climbed back down the ladder, ran down the smoke filled halls that burned my eyes, then went down another ladder, then up another annoying ladder to find all five of the powerful vamps piled up close to the flames.

"Fuck!" I cursed and ran over to one that was twice my size, yet dragged him to stand up even still. He was half conscious and not very mobile. "You need to go!" I yelled at him, facing his bleary eyes.

As I dragged the other four vamps closer to the ladder where there were less flames, the first vamp had started up the ladder.

It took a total of thirty minutes before I was able to get all of the powerful vamps out of the room. I had to carry the last one on my shoulders since he was very much immobile as he was the last to be injected fully.

The vamps were able to make it up to the main hallway no problem, however, I was still struggling up the ladder with the fifth vamp on my back, pushing my legs to the limit.

I was sweaty as the temperature rose while the flames grew closer to me, even flickering out briefly to lash at my ankles and I whimpered. The scratches on me made me aware of just how much pain I was in.

You know, I read somewhere that vamps have poisonous scratches, I never bothered to ask Zayn whether that was true or not. The way they're burning has me believing that they just may be.

So, in other words, I'm really struggling right now.

By the time I tiredly crawled to the surface, all the powerful vampires were all safely lying about the abandoned area. The bunch of humans were gone and I heard Zayn yelling at me once again as I laid on the dirt, covered in ashes.

"What the fuck is your problem!? Why can't you listen to directions!?"

"Leaving them weren't part of your directions." I wheezed out, lungs probably filled with smoke. "Saving them were my decision. You- you agreed to my plan. My plan was to save them." I ended up going into a coughing fit, which Liam helped me through, sitting me up carefully and patting my back as he held my arms up.

Black mucous made its way out of my throat then my mouth and I spit it to the side.

"You do you, and I do me. And I try to remain a somewhat honest man, so get over it," I spoke, my voice was rough and my throat was dry like sandpaper.

Liam helped me up to my feet and allowed me to lean on him when he saw that I wasn't quite able to stand on my own.

At the end of the day, a very pissed off Zayn forced me to sit in the back of his truck, I didn't mind because I could have my legs out straight out as they are quite injured. Liam was pissed off at Zayn and sat in the back with me as there were only three seats up front and it isn't illegal to drive in the back of a truck.

And besides, we need to talk anyway.

Liam looked over at me, "I need to call him, you know. Or maybe text him if I don't get my hearing back."

I panicked and looked at Liam with wide eyes, 'you can't do that!' I instantly knew who he was talking about.

"I can and I will... Do.... Do you remember what I said about monsters and different things happening and the change and everything?" Liam asked, looking at me intently. I looked away and nodded as I looked down at my lap. "Well... Harry's feeling that too, because well he's half of us, half monster. I didn't want him to tell you so you wouldn't freak out and leave but... looks like you went and did that all on your own."

My head snapped up, 'what kind of monster?'

Liam hesitated on that question, "I can't tell you. That's for him to say someday. But... he feels the change and I'm sure that you do too because you two are so close to each other like Zayn and I. He worries about you and I know that you worry about him."

I shook my head in denial and looked away from Liam, overwhelmed by the new information.

"So that's why, don't you understand? That's why I need to call him. You two need each other to be okay, to stop worrying. Right now, I'm sure that Zayn is doing nothing at all to help that," Liam said.

Sighing shakily, I nodded, feeling tears prick at the corners of my eyes and yet I squeezed my eyes tightly shut so they wouldn't fall.

I felt Liam's strong sure arms wrap around me as he hugged me and I knew that it was going to be okay even if it wasn't right now.

I felt like my little independent adventure was coming to a close.


	6. Part One Recapitulation (Recap(Summary))

1\. We find out what happens to Louis after the bomb, this takes place a year and a half after this incident.

 

-He is a paraplegic i.e. he's paralyzed from the waist down  
-He has to take time off of work  
-Harry starts living with him

 

2\. We find out Louis is hunting with Zayn

-They've been hunting for six months  
-Liam is introduced when Zayn and Louis have a big hunt to go on  
-It's implied that Liam and Zayn were once together  
-We find out that Alan James, A.J., (Louis' apartment neighbor) is the son of Liam  
-Liam knows Harry  
-There's a community of retired hunters, which is where Zayn and Louis end up getting a lot of their resources

 

3\. Through Louis' memories, we find out many things.

-Why he's with Zayn instead of Harry  
-Harry and Louis' relationship was deteriorating on some levels  
-Harry views Louis as a cripple but for Louis, he feels incompetent  
-Harry was keeping secrets from Louis, which he didn't approve of  
-Harry and Louis' relationship was growing more so into a relationship that two lovers would have  
-They've kissed and made out numerous times  
-Harry has a lake house  
-Harry convinces Louis to move there with him until he recovers  
-How Louis isn't paraplegic anymore  
-Harry helped train Louis to walk again for many months  
-Because Harry injected some of his powers into Louis, it helped with healing his spine, therefore healing his legs as well

 

4\. Louis and Zayn's relationship is also deteriorating.

-Louis and Zayn argue  
-Zayn belittles Louis  
-Zayn still sees Louis as crippled because his legs don't fully function how they should

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Next time I update, which should be next week, you'll be in part two, so there! Enjoy the rest of your time until then!


	7. Part Two: Crushed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hiya people! Oh how nice it feels to update once again!
> 
> WARNING!!!!!!!
> 
> There is smut in this chapter at the very END!!! It is pretty rough and border line rape but it's not entirely rape!
> 
> If it's not your cup of tea don't read it, I'll understand. Just so you know, I'm not putting warnings before and after like I have in the past.
> 
> If you skip it, it's fine but you may miss some important stuff is all I'm saying.
> 
> Anywho, QoTD: If you could be someone else who would you be and why?
> 
> I would be Lacey Sturm because she's such a strong person and she's been through so much and got into things that were hard to get out of. However, she was able to bring herself out of that ditch and I wish that I could be like her so that I could have her strength.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

...ugh...

....Ugh....

....UGh.....

......UGH......!

So... well... I've been in bed for a couple of weeks. I don't think that Liam's called Harry yet, which I am sort of glad about because I want to drag this out for as long as I can. But I'm sure that the moment I'm able to get up that he will.

"Damn straight," Liam mumbled.

Speaking of Liam, he's been the one taking care of me really since Zayn's pissed at me and the other two are busy relocating the humans that we freed. They had scattered everywhere afterwards, so they're making sure that they're all okay and not recaptured or something.

Liam hasn't really regained his hearing yet, though the internal bleeding has gratefully stopped.

I sighed, "of course." But then I remembered that he couldn't hear, so I repeated the phrase in my head.

"I'll still call him if you don't end up getting better, though," Liam said slightly louder than what I would have liked. I didn't say anything about it, but I knew that he heard me anyway through my thoughts.

'Well shit. I'm sort of screwed either way.'

"Damn straight," Liam repeated, quieter this time.

***

Zayn and I ended up driving back to our secret hidden cabin a few days after we dropped Liam off.

The whole way there, neither Zayn nor I had said a word. When we got back to the cabin, Zayn had been the one to break the silence between us.

"So, are you going back to Harry?" Zayn asked quietly as the two of us sat on the old couch.

"I don't know," I admitted. "If he asks me to, I don't think that I can say no."

Pursing his lips, Zayn slowly nodded, "okay. I understand that. You've worked so hard for me and with me and yet I still treat you like shit, so yeah."

I nodded, "it's okay-"

"No it's not okay. I want to say that... that I'm sorry. I haven't worked with anyone for a long time and sometimes I just tend to forget that not everyone is like me... I forgot that even before hand. That's why Liam's so hesitant to work with me, I hurt him really badly awhile ago. Harry was the person that I worked with after that and he taught me that humans are fragile, even me myself. Guess I forgot that after all these years."

"That's another thing about us humans, right?" I brought up softly, "we tend to forget the important things."

Zayn sighed, "yeah. Harry doesn't forget stuff like that. If you do go back to Harry, it's okay. I wouldn't blame you. But if you were to leave, I just want to say thank you for sticking around. You make quite an excellent hunter. I don't think that I've ever told you that before."

I pursed my lips and nodded, "your welcome. Thanks for taking me in, I guess. Thank you for allowing me to be a hunter with you, even if it was for only half a year." I smiled slightly.

"No problem, the pleasure's all mine," he smiled a genuine smile towards me.

The very next morning, as if our conversation had been overheard, there was a heavy knock on the front cabin door.

I blearily sat up, confused as confused gets because it isn't often that we get visitors.

Zayn motioned for me to stay as he took out his infamous knife and carefully crept out of the room and to the front, avoiding any creaky spots in the floor. I crawled out of my make-shift mattress bed to peek out and see what was happening.

From my spot on the floor, I watched as Zayn sneakily checked the window to see who was at our front door.

His stance went from defensive to inviting and he tossed his knife onto the couch. Zayn motioned for me to go to him as there came another series of loud knocks.

Quickly, I stumbled over to the front door, heavily relying on the wall and the couch for support. Zayn placed a steadying hand on my mid-back and gestured for me to open the door.

Heart beating out of my chest, I unlocked the crappy lock and twisted the door knob, then pulled the door open.

My knees all but buckled as I saw a certain curly haired man standing in the doorway with green eyes.

His eyes widened as I suddenly fell forward from my knees buckling and he quickly caught me.

"Lou, calm down it's just me," Harry's deep voice said.

For a moment, I just wanted to stay there in Harry's warm chest, feeling his chest rumble as he talked and the soft thud as his heart beat quickly. The familiar heartbeat as well as the warmth caused me to calm down and regain my composure.

Once I did regain my composure, I came to my senses and immediately pushed Harry away, standing on my own (with support from the door frame). I shook my head, "no."

"Lou, you haven't even given me a chance to speak yet. I'm sorry and I really want you to come back home."

/Home/. Harry's smiles. Harry's kisses. The lake. Laughs. Warmth. Softness. /Love/.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. "No!" I yelled this time, surprising both Zayn and Harry.

"But Louis, you're important to me and I need you to come home," Harry said, seeming to be slightly pissed off as well. I was surprised to see that Harry was starting to lose his cool, something must definitely be wrong.

"That is not your decision to make because you lied to me and... and I don't want to go back," the last part was a lie.

"I really am sorry and I'll tell you the truth from now on," Harry said sincerely.

I shook my head, looking away from his angry eyes filled with sadness, not able to deal with how upset he clearly is.

"Okay, I lied to you and I understand that. I know that I can't change your mind, you know what you want. If all those memories mean nothing to you and I am absolutely prone to lie to you again, then okay. You don't need to come back home with me." Harry proposed quietly.

I rested my forehead against the back of my hand, feeling oncoming tears from the mention of /those/ memories. In reality there was complete silence as I completely leaned against the door frame.

However, behind my eyelids, my mind went back to my memories.

I could see Harry's lazy smile as we both laid on the bed.

I could see Harry's face illuminated by the night stars.

I could see Harry's face filled with concern hovering over my own.

I could see Harry near tears as he looked over my crippled body.

I could hear Harry's beautiful laugh.

I could hear Harry's light snores.

I could hear Harry's low voice singing to our favorite songs.

I could hear Harry's voice whispering into my ear.

I could feel Harry's large hands at the small of my back, keeping me from falling.

I could feel Harry's hands gingerly going through my hair.

I could feel Harry's lips against my temple.

I could feel Harry's lips press sensually against my own.

Overall, I felt loved.

The memories faded away and there was darkness again and I cracked my eyes open and used my other hand to wipe away any tears that had fallen. I looked at Zayn with bleary eyes and he motioned for me to look towards Harry.

Biting my lip, I turned to face a very scared looking Harry, and stood as tall as I could, yet not feeling at all tall enough. "I... I... I think that I'll go back with you, Har." My voice cracked on the last word. I looked at Zayn, "well if that's okay with you, I mean."

Zayn rolled his eyes, "we had this conversation earlier, of course you can go dip shit. I'm not going to hold you back from your man."

I stumbled over to Harry and immediately wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face into his chest as I leaned completely into him. As if it was a reflex, Harry wrapped his arms tightly around me.

I looked up at him after a full minute of basking in the comfort that Harry offers and I smiled at him, "hi."

"Hello there," he smiled back at me fondly.

"You know that I need to pack right?" I asked.

"Yeah," Harry said, gingerly sweeping a strand of hair away from my forehead and planting a kiss there. "I'm aware."

"So are you going to let me go?" I asked again, expecting him to do exactly that.

"Nope," Harry replied, popping the 'p' at the end and held me even tighter to my chest, if that's even possible. "Absolutely not."

"But Har, I need to pack," I giggled, pushing away from him. "Please?" I tacked on at the end for good measure.

"Well... I guess since you asked so nicely I don't really have a say in the matter now do I?" Harry chuckled, fondly looking into my eyes.

"Not in the slightest," I retaliated.

"Well then," Harry let me go carefully and took a step back after he was sure that I was okay with standing on my own.

"Ugh, you two are so sweet to each other that it's annoying yet endearing all at once," Zayn complained as he walked over to me and assisted me back into the cabin. Once we got to the very back of the cabin, I was fine with standing on my own.

Since Zayn and I just came back from a hunt, I have most of my things packed already, so all I really needed to put in my bag was my set of clothes that I had previously worn, my phone, and my mangled flower earbuds (which are basically trash now).

My bag was no heavier than from when I had began this whole... thing... My whole journey, I guess that I can call it actually. In fact, my bag was probably much lighter since I've long since eaten and drank all the food and water and used all the money that I had.

Granted, I do have fifteen dollars and a hot and cold pack, but that's really it other than my memories.

"You good?" Zayn asked.

I nodded, my memories are going to have to be sufficient enough of a souvenir. "Yeah... it's just going to be weird you know? I lived here for six months and now... I'm not."

"I can understand that... Would you like to keep that clay jar that you got from the village?" Zayn asked, "it technically is yours anyway."

I shook my head, "nope, that's for you to keep. I guess that you can give away any of the jerky that I made as well since I know that you're not going to eat it."

Zayn nodded and opened his mouth before thinking better and closing it, shaking his head. "Okay then. So you don't need anything at all? You're going to be fine?"

I nodded, "completely. I'm fine."

"Well... I still want to give this to you... I'm sure that you don't have any," Zayn held out his large special knife. It was the very same one I had used to threaten the powerful vampire just weeks ago.

"Zayn... are you sure?" I asked.

"Well duh, otherwise I wouldn't offer," Zayn huffed. "Just take the freaking thing."

"Okay okay, chill," I carefully took the handle into my own hand.

"You deserve it more than me. I guess that I'll walk you out since you're still a little off with walking after all that heavy lifting," Zayn insisted.

Just as he said, Zayn walked me out to the front of the cabin and Harry helped me out of the doorway.

"Thanks for looking after him," Harry said to Zayn.

Zayn shook his head, flashing a grin, " that was all him, mate."

Harry looked at me, "oh I know, fierce one isn't he?" He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes despite my blush.

After Harry and I said our goodbyes to Zayn we got into my car, which was apparently what Harry took to get over here in the first place.

"How did Liam call you anyway?" I asked Harry when we were well down the highway after I had retold my story of my most recent hunt.

"He didn't," Harry said simply. "He texted."

"But how? I thought that he didn't have a phone." I asked, thoroughly confused.

Harry chuckled, "you're so cute when you're confused. That's what Liam wants everyone else to think so that no one would even think of tracking him through that."

"Oh, that's smart. So only you and I know about his phone?" I asked.

"Yeah, two individuals who wouldn't crack under any pressure if someone were to interrogate us." Harry pointed out.

I hummed in response, changing the topic, "so what... what have you been doing for this half year?"

"Working, and trying to find you," Harry said carefully and quietly.

"Oh," was all I said. "Harry?"

"Yes Lou?" Harry asked, looking over to me briefly to acknowledge that he was listening.

I hesitated, but eventually got over myself, "when we get back... home, can we lay outside and look at the stars?"

Harry looked slightly guilty, "actually, when we get home, you'll see that I made a few changes..."

"So we can't look out at the stars?" I nearly panicked, did he like explode the night sky or something?

"No no no no, that's not what I was trying to say," Harry quickly said. "It's just that... I bought a few things that I though you would have liked to have if you were to come back and... one of those things I bought is a porch swing. So I was wondering if we could test that out."

I mentally kicked myself in the face from my previous over reaction, " of course. I'd like to do that."

Harry smiled a genuine smile, "oh, and I also bought us a teapot... and a laptop... and a flat screen t.v. since yours got broken from being transported... and I think that's all I bought."

"What!? Harry, that's a lot of stuff to buy all at once. Why didn't you go and buy a car while you were at it? Speaking of cars... Harry what happened to your car? I distinctly remember you having one."

As if suddenly nervous, Harry scratched the back of his neck with a peculiar look on his face. "Well... I sort of sold that because I never use it...?" Harry asked more than anything.

"Harry! Why would you do that? How did you always get to work before I do if you don't even have a car anymore?" I asked.

That was when I regretted asking my question, because it caused for Harry's face to darken considerably before he breathed in then out in a deep sigh. "I'll tell you one day, just... not today."

"Okay, that's fine," I nodded, after all, I hadn't told Harry everything from the past six months, so he shouldn't be obligated to tell me his whole life story... speaking of... now that I think of it, I really don't know much about him do I?

***

It took a few days of straight driving, of course we stopped for the essentials, but we eventually made it to the lake house. Just as Harry said, there was a porch swing, a new t.v. on the wall, a laptop on the couch, and a teapot in the kitchen.

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Walking Dead until it was around dusk.

"How about we take grab snacks and sit outside," Harry suggested.

I nodded and stood up with Harry's help, " that's fine."

Harry handed me the snacks so that he could guide me outside and be ready to catch me in case I fell over. Once we were both safely seated, Harry grabbed a bag of Doritos from me and began to eat from it.

For awhile, about half an hour or so, it was silent between us as we appreciated the view that nature allowed us to have. However, when the stars were in full view, I looked over to Harry to see him quietly chewing as he looked up at the stars. I saw the face that I absolutely loved to see, Harry's face glowing with the moon's light and his eyes shining as they reflected the stars' brightness.

I leaned against Harry's shoulder, looking at the stars over the lake's horizon.

"I really do love you," I mumbled, not meaning to say it out loud, and definitely not at all meaning for Harry to hear it. Suddenly, I felt Harry stiffen and I felt vulnerable knowing that he had heard me.

I closed my eyes tightly as I felt Harry's body shift, I knew that he was now looking at me.

"I can't say those words back," Harry said lowly, causing for my chest to suddenly feel very heavy and fear filled me at what could happen next. Sniffling as I felt my nose clog and a knot form in my throat, I turned my face into Harry's arm so that he didn't need to see my heartbroken face.

"Look at me Lou," Harry gently coaxed, placing his hands over my shoulders and pulled me away from his arm. Having no other choice, opened my eyes, sniffled again and wiped away any tears that had fallen, even though I knew that I still had more. "Half of me isn't allowed to feel whereas the other half of me is only allowed to feel anger and hate. I literally cannot love you, Lou. No part of me was made for that. I guess you win that bet because you've found something that I don't know about."

"But," I sniffled again, "you need to be you and make your own decisions and feel things for yourself... I- I think that right now, the only reason why you can't feel love is because you won't let yourself. Just because you don't know how to, doesn't mean you can't." All my words were soft whispers, because I knew that if I spoke any louder I'd somehow ruin the quiet secretive moment.

"I've never thought about that... In that case..." Harry took a very long time to think, "I think that I actually do like you... like a lot and... I want to stay with you until I can say those same three words back."

I nodded, grateful that it wasn't a flat out rejection and I sobbed out of relief.

Harry looked at me in confusion, "why are you crying still?" His hands cupped my face and he wiped away the tears from my face with his thumbs.

Smiling, I shook my head, "I- I'm just happy."

Harry sighed, out of relief as well probably, and held me closer to his body, "that's okay then. You can cry all you want."

And, well, I did.

I cried all those tears that had built up over the past six months.

Once I finished sobbing my eyes out into Harry's shirt front, I was absolutely exhausted, so I fell asleep right there in Harry's hold.

***

Harry woke me up somewhat early the next morning, "Lou, how are you feeling?"

"Tired," I mumbled, having not slept that well in a very long while.

"Do you feel any pain right now?"

"No," I answered sluggishly, trying to process my own thoughts into words. "Coz m'not moving."

"Can you stand?" Harry asked, keeping his voice low.

"No," I answered right off the bat without even moving from my very comfortable spot in Harry's arm.

"Okay then. I'll stay home with you today," Harry said.

I mumbled something unintelligible as I felt myself being lifted from my current position, causing me to whine. However, Harry shushed me and turned my body so that I could cuddle into him.

After that, I fell asleep with ease.

The next time I woke up, I was tucked in bed alone and I quickly sat up, calling out for Harry, panicking that he had left me.

A voice hadn't answered me, but instead, I heard a round of hurried footsteps. My door was opened two seconds later once those footsteps reached Harry and I's room. Just as I thought it was, there stood a worry-stricken Harry.

However, once our eyes met we both relaxed, seeing that we were both here and fine.

"I thought that you left me..." I trailed off before regaining my thought process, "...because I thought you were mad at me for leaving before."

Harry chuckled, "I would never leave you without a good reason."

I looked down, not convinced by his words.

"You don't believe me," Harry stated, crawling on top of the very blankets that covered me until he was beside me.

"I want to... but... it was a really a really mean thing that I did by leaving," I looked down and fiddled with my fingers. "I can't help but think that you'll do the same thing."

Sighing, Harry carefully placed his legs on either side of my upper thighs and hovered there. Large hands were cupping my face and gently forced me to look up. "Lou, I won't leave you, I promise. I literally cannot break my promises," Harry mumbled, keeping his eyes on mine whilst moving his head closer to mine.

Our faces were so close to each other that we were sharing each other's breaths. Harry apparently didn't care that I had morning breath because he took his hands away from my face to plant beside my hips right before pressing his lips against mine.

This connection was familiar and I immediately melted into the softness of Harry's touch.

In fact, I wrapped my arms around Harry's neck, tangled my hands in his hair, and pushed his mouth harder against my own.

With a slight, almost inhumane growl, Harry deepened the kiss by tilting his head and wrapping an arm around my body for support.

As our mouths melded together, I didn't even breathe, too caught up with the kiss.

Unfortunately for us, the close moment was interrupted by the ringing of Harry's phone.

The moment Harry pulled away from my lips, I immediately missed him.

When we broke apart, I realized just how much I had missed having these moments with Harry over the past six months.

For a moment, we stayed in our positions just panting to regain our breaths.

Another ring from Harry's phone caused for Harry to throw a lopsided grin at me before he got up to answer his phone.

"Yeah, Simon. You heard me earlier, I need today off. I just found Louis and I need to make sure he's okay." Harry spoke.

That was pretty much the highlight of his conversation with Simon and he came back into the room.

"When do you think I'd be able to go back to work?" I asked quietly.

"That is not something that we should talk about right now," Harry answered truthfully, extending an arm out to me when he neared my bedside.

I gratefully took his hand and Harry helped me swing my legs around to stand and get out of bed. For a moment, Harry let go of my hand, testing the waters to see just how well I was able to stand.

"M'okay with standing. It's just being on my feet for too long is when my legs start to hurt," I explained before he was able to ask.

"Do you want to use your crutches?" Harry asked instead.

I shook my head and replied wittily, "why use them when I've got you?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "of course, why would I even offer."

***

It's been a full month since I've been back at Harry's lake house after so long.

The vampire venom from the scratches have long since left my blood stream -though it did take a whole lot of puking- and my legs are nearly all the way healed. Here and there I would cough from the smoke inhalation from the fire, but that has left my lungs as well.

I guess, in other words, you could say that I'm just about completely healed again.

Harry was beside me for most of it, even calling out on the days that I really wasn't well.

Speaking of Harry, he's at work right now, but I'm planning a surprise for him when he gets back because I have some very good news to tell him when he comes home.

However, unfortunately for me, it began to rain right around three forty five in the after noon, which is an hour and fifteen minutes before Harry is due to come back home. Of course I hadn't thought to check the weather and everything that I set up outside was soon ruined.

So now, I'm left to set something up in an hour and fifteen minutes that had originally took me just about the whole day.

I groaned out of frustration into my hands, hiding my face from the rain. "Well shit... well... I suppose that it's still fairly warm outside..."

Quickly, I ran around the house looking for what I needed after sending Harry a quick text.

L: Har, please come in through the back!

H: Why is something wrong?

I didn't even feel my phone buzz as I was so busy setting things up.

H: Lou.... are you okay?

I didn't feel my phone vibrate for that text either, however, I was quick to check my phone after a whole hour had past, just to make sure that Harry had gotten my text.

H: Be home in 5.

Oh crap! I haven't gotten ready yet!

I looked down to see that I was only wearing my underwear, which was my pajamas.

"Damn it!" I yelled when I heard a knock at the back door. Harry always knocks even though he has the keys, "just wait ten minutes Har!"

"Are you okay Lou!?" I heard Harry yell from the other side of the door.

"I'm okay, just wait there for another ten minutes!" I assured him as I quickly made my way over to Harry and I's room, a hand constantly against the wall to keep me steady. Opening the closet, I browsed through everything that I had hanging up.

I pulled a pair of red skinny jeans that I haven't worn in awhile and a white button down T-shirt. It took a few minutes for me to get dressed and apply deodorant. For a moment, I looked at myself in the full length mirror, yet felt that something was off.

Not having enough time to do much else with my hair, I simply ran my fingers through it a few times to rid myself of any knots. Looking at my reflection again, I frowned, still feeling that something was missing. A light bulb appeared above my head as I suddenly had an idea of what it was and I immediately dug through my drawers searching for my braces. (Well suspenders for those of you who don't know what braces are.)

Barefoot, I padded over to the back door and unlocked it to see a somewhat worried Harry. However, when he saw me his face softened and he smiled warmly.

"Hi Lou, you look nice. What're you all dressed up for?" Harry asked, lowering his umbrella, taking his shoes off and stepping inside.

"Well, I have good news to tell you and I sort of wanted to have a... a date with you?" I blushed at my awkwardness.

To be fair, I've never really dated before... nor done anything like this...

Harry smirked, "you're cute when you're all awkward like this. So the date is going to be indoors, I'm guessing."

"Well sort of. It was supposed to be outside by the lake but... it's sort of raining, so it's going to mostly be on the porch, I mean, I thought that it was a good idea because I like to look at the rain, and I remember that you like looking at the rain so I just kept it somewhat outside, but I do have a just in case option still-" I rambled before cutting myself off and looking up into Harry's eyes with realization, "well if that's okay with you?"

Harry chuckled lightly, "of course that's fine with me, Love. Let's get this started, then."

"Okay!" I said excitedly, yet nervously, and I took hold of Harry's hand as I lead him out through the front, making sure to go around the living room. Harry followed close behind me and his eyes widened when we got to the porch.

There were lit candles hanging from the ceiling in glass jars. On the cushioned porch swing, I had weaved a flowers into the chains that held them up. In front of the swing, there was a small table with two large plates with pasta carbonara with bacon on it. On either side of the plates there were forks and knives the a glass for each of us. In the middle of the two plates there was a vase with white and light orange colored flowers, beside it was a bottle of champagne. For the other side of the table there were four more candles lit.

"It's beautiful, Lou." Harry said, seeming quite impressed and I couldn't help the heat that rose to my cheeks. "Just like you." His eyes landed on me and I quickly looked away.

I waved off the compliment, "it was really nothing. There were supposed to be more flowers... I actually wanted there to be flowers woven around the porch swing as well but... the rain started so I couldn't pick enough flowers and-"

"Lou, it's perfect." Harry assured me, "come on let's sit."

I shimmied my way between the table and the porch swing so that I could sit down. Harry did the same.

Without wasting any time, I poured half a glass of champagne in both of the glasses then closed the bottle again.

Harry took a hesitant bite of the warm pasta and I did the same. I was surprised to hear a low moan from the curly haired man and I turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"Damn, this is actually good Lou." Harry said after swallowing his bite, only to take another large bite of the food afterwards.

"I'm glad that you like it so much," I chuckled.

There wasn't much talking as Harry and I ate, enjoying the food that was admittedly quite good. It didn't take long for Harry and I to clear our plates and I sighed in contentment.

"Do you want anymore?" I asked Harry.

"No, I'm good," Harry shook his head. "Where the Hell did you learn to cook like that?"

I chuckled at his complete disbelief, "well, plenty of places. I learned from the internet, and the Hunter Village, but mostly from you. If you hadn't started teaching me, then I probably wouldn't have been too enthusiastic about cooking." I admitted.

"I most definitely cannot take all the credit, Love," Harry shook his head. "So, are you going to tell me the reason for this celebration?"

"Well... I think that I'm fit enough to go back to work, so I called Simon and asked him if I can come back..." I trailed off, knowing that I had his attention. There was a soft pitter patter of rain on the roof and splashing from the lake as the droplets hit its surface.

"So what did he say?" Harry urged.

"He said that I can come back, obviously," I snorted.

Harry smiled widely, "I'm happy for you, Lou. You've definitely earned your job back after all that you've endured."

"Thanks Har," I smiled, raising my glass and Harry did the same.

"To hard work?" Harry winked at me.

"To hard work," I confirmed, clinking my glass against his and then we drank.

After a few more half glasses, tons of giggles, and light conversation, the rain started to pick up to the point where thunder cracked and lightening flashed.

"How about we get inside," I suggested with a small giggle.

"Let's put out the candles first," Harry suggested, his head was surprisingly quite level despite how much we have drank.

"O-kay," I hiccuped and Harry chuckled.

"Too cute," Harry commented, taking a pastel orange flower from the vase and placing it in my hair behind my ear. Heat rose to my face from the contact and I smiled.

"Thanks," I said for once.

A look of surprise passed his face at my acceptance, but he eventually nodded with a bright smile on his face.

Harry and I blew out all the candles so they wouldn't be a hazard then we went inside.

I cleared my throat, "so Harry, in our living room, I made a blanket fort!" Excitement filled my voice and I felt like I was young again building fun blanket forts in the living room for the girls and I to play inside of.

"What's a blanket fort?" Harry asked in confusion.

"You'll know it when you see it." I answered easily, clearing my throat as we walked into the living room that was nearly all covered by different sheets being held up in order to form a sort of high tent looking structure. Inside were a ton of flashlights just in case the power went out.

"Whoa, do we go inside?" Harry asked carefully.

"Well yeah," I answered with a small laugh, got onto my knees when were in front of the entrance and crawled inside.

Harry crawled in after me and sat across from me. "You know when you said that you were going to weave the flowers into the porch swing? Do you actually know how to do that?"

"No, not really. I was going to look it up online last minute," I answered truthfully, though it had been something that I've wanted to do for awhile. "I always saw my little sisters running around with flower crowns on that they had made, but I never got the chance to learn from them." I explained, looking down at my fingers in my crossed lap.

"Oh," Harry said carefully. "Maybe that's something you can take up one day."

I looked up at Harry with a slight smile on my face, "yeah, I think so too. So how's for a game of truth or dare!?" I quickly changed the subject before I got too upset.

"I'd say that I agree with that proposal," Harry nodded slightly, crossing his long legs. "You go first."

"Okay then, Harry truth or dare?"

"Dare," Harry answered, as per usual.

"I dare you to... lick your own foot," I smirked at him.

Without hesitation, Harry used both hands to lift his foot then leaned in the rest of the way to allow for his tongue to rub against the sole of his foot.

I watched as he regained his composure and shrugged, "I've tasted worse... though it sort of sucks that I've gotten rid of the pasta taste.."

"Sorry, Har," I couldn't contain my laughter, "your turn."

"Okay then, truth or dare Lou?" Harry asked slowly.

"Hm... dare," I said, matching his own answer.

"I dare to... let me tickle you for a straight minute." Harry smirked at me.

I squawked, "what!? But... but that's..."

"Are you going to give up already?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not," I mumbled. "Set a timer."

Harry took out his phone and did exactly that. "Ready?"

I nodded hesitantly and Harry pressed start as soon as he pulled me on top of him. Immediately, he went right at it, digging skillful fingers into my sides, automatically causing me to elicit uncontrollable giggles and I tried to squirm out of his hold.

"H-H-Haaar!" I dragged out, my voice was quite high pitched as I laughed. "St-op it!" I screeched as Harry moved on to the back of my knees.

Unable to control myself, I fell back, causing my flower to fall from my hair as I tried to kick him away. That, of course, had no affect. Harry, however, returned to tickling my aching sides. Literal tears were pouring down my temples from laughing so much.

A sudden feeling of pleasure shot through me when Harry's leg accidentally brushed against my crotch whilst shifting his position. An involuntary low moan left my mouth and Harry paused a moment in his actions, much to my relief.

A dark look passed across Harry's features, yet disappeared when the timer went off, signaling that a minute was up. I stayed laying where I was, breathing heavily after the tickling that I had just received.

Harry cleared his throat and hovered above me, his hand cleared hair from my forehead.

I closed my eyes and basked in the feeling. Harry took the opportunity to wipe away my tears before carefully placing the flower back in my hair after drying my tears. He then began to fan my face with what I assumed to be his hand. "You're very red, are you okay?" The green eyed man asked quietly.

I nodded yet kept my eyes closed, "mhm, just fine. Har, truth or dare?"

Harry surprised me by quietly saying, "truth." He stopped fanning me, yet I could still feel that he was close to me.

I pursed my lips and cracked my eyes open. "Will you... will you tell me what you really think about me?"

A sincere smile took over Harry's face, "I already tell you this nearly everyday. You're a hard worker, Lou and very dedicated to whatever you work towards. You... you don't half-ass things, you go all the way. You're funny, smart, and a quick learner. You're a really good friend. You're so broken, yet you keep yourself together without any help at all from anyone. I... I believe that you don't belong in this world, but at the same time I think that you do. You're painfully honest, like seriously, I'd love to see you lie one day. Sometimes you snap, but I think that everyone should be allowed to do that every once in awhile. You are so caring and beautiful, Lou. And I absolutely love the fact that you love me because... I think that I'm starting to fall for you."

I felt my face heat up even further and I suddenly became quite aware of how close we were, so I blamed it on that. "Really?" I didn't believe it, I couldn't believe that he was able to say that so soon, just a month later.

"Well," Harry's face darkened, "I know that I like you enough to do this, at least."

At the very punctual end of his sentence, Harry pressed his soft lips roughly against mine, causing for me to gasp in surprise. Taking the opportunity, Harry slipped his tongue into my mouth, sensually tangling it with my own.

Making his intentions clear, Harry's hips ground slowly against my own, driving small whimper-y moans out of my mouth only for them to be lost to Harry's mouth. Though even still, Harry seemed to force his mouth away from mine and stilled his hips.

"Is-" he shook his head to clear his thoughts, "is this okay? A-Are you sure you want this with me?"

Unable to verbally answer, I pressed my lips against his without hesitating. That kiss was short lived as Harry pulled away, yet kept close to me as he pressed kisses to my neck while whispering sweet nothings against the skin there.

I loosely buried a hand into Harry's curls and turned my head to the side when Harry began to lightly nibble at the skin at my neck. Pulling away from my neck, Harry untucked my shirt and began to undo the buttons. With each button he undid, he left a kiss on the skin that he revealed. Once the white shirt was entirely unbuttoned, Harry removed the material from my body.

Feeling self conscious, I placed my hands over top my stomach. Harry tisked and shook his head, gently pulling my hands away to place a loving kiss just above my belly button. "You're perfect, Lou," Harry said lowly, then whispered to himself yet I still heard him. "So perfect."

A stinging pain caused for sparks of pleasured and I looked at Harry of whom was smirking and I frowned, the pain registering from my chest, "ow."

Harry repeated his action, pulling back my braces then letting go so that they snapped against my chest, and even more painfully, my nipples. "Har," my voice cracked on the one word.

Eyes dark with lust, Harry thankfully didn't do the action again, instead pushing my braces from off of me. Once they were gone, Harry's mouth immediately captured a sensitive perky nipple into his mouth, sucking on it gently. Even though Harry was trying to be gentle, I wasn't going to tolerate it and I whined, trying to push him off.

"Har, d-don't- oh shit!" I was cut off by a small spike of pleasure when Harry began to lightly nibble and I cradled his head to my chest instead.

That was when Harry decided to pull away from the now overly sensitive bud, "good?"

I nodded, embarrassed from my previous yell.

"Okay, now for the pants," he mumbled more so to himself than anyone else. Skilled fingers unbuttoned my pants and dragged purposely against my length as he unzipped my fly. Harry kept his eyes on me whilst completing this action and I elicited a small moan as I watched Harry.

For a full minute, Harry struggled with getting my pants down past my bum, "you have quite the arse, Lou. Would you help me out here?"

Biting my lip, I raised my hips so that Harry could shimmy the denim past my bum, which resulted in my pants being tossed elsewhere. I was now only in my boxers where as Harry was still fully clothed, so I took it upon myself to help out in the process.

By the time I was done with him, Harry was in only his underwear, just as I am.

I may or may not have ogled at his muscled pale skin.

"Like what you see?" Harry murmured lowly in my ear.

"You're beautiful too, Harry," I said in all sincerity.

He chuckled humorlessly, "I'm supposed to be, so it doesn't count."

"You're beautiful on the inside as well," I backtracked.

Harry smiled into the side of my neck for a moment before laying a gentle kiss there, "are you ready?"

I nodded, face flushing at the mention of the main event that was about to happen.

"Okay then, we'll take our underwear off at the same time. How does that sound?"

"It's fine," I mumbled, hooking my fingertips in the hem of my boxers and Harry did the same.

Harry slowly counted to three before we both removed the article of clothing.

I bit my lip to hide my gasp, because damn was Harry big. Harry smirked, "bet you can't wait to get this inside you."

If I wasn't blushing before, I definitely was now. That was when Harry decided to suck on the second nipple that he hadn't before. The only difference this time is that Harry had seated me in his lap and we were both naked. Harry was slightly harsher this time, alternatively biting and sucking at the bud until my cock began to throb against Harry's since it was so hard. I whimpered at the warmth and pleasure I was feeling from Harry's simple actions.

Harry pulled away from my chest in satisfaction. "I'm going to put my fingers in you, okay? But first I need you to suck on them so they're nice and wet."

I nodded.

Without wasting anytime, Harry placed three of his large fingers into my open mouth.

With half-lidded eyes, I sucked on the three fingers, moving my tongue around and between them for good measure.

"That's good babe," Harry said, pulling his fingers from my mouth with a pop. Reaching his arm around me, Harry looked me in the eye as his middle finger lightly stroked against my hole.

"Harry," I said quietly, unsure now if I was ready.

"Sh, you're okay Love. Just relax and you'll barely feel it." Harry said lowly but surely.

I shakily sighed, "okay."

Without another word, Harry pressed the finger against the tight ring of muscles until he entered my passage.

"F-Feels weird," I relayed the message once the finger was all the way in. For a couple moments, Harry held still so I could get used to it. Without a warning, Harry began to move his finger in little thrusts, seeming to be searching around for something.

"Oh!" I suddenly yelped and moved away as hot white pleasure jolted over my body the moment his protruding finger brushed against something.

"It's okay, Lou. It's only you're prostate," Harry informed me, smiling into my neck and thrusting his finger boldly, lightly brushing against the gland each time.

Squirming in his hold from the intense pleasure, I let out high pitched moans and whimpers. Harry added another finger, scissoring them in and out.

When a third finger was added, I was absolutely done and ready for my release. "H-Har," I whimpered in warning.

"Hold it love," Harry grit out.

"But Har," I whined, bucking my hips in time with Harry's thrusting, desperate to release.

"If you come now, you'll be too sensitive to come again when I'm in you and it'll hurt." Harry explained, taking his fingers out. "I'm going to enter you now."

I bit my lip, now nervous of what was about to happen. 

"You're going to be okay, Lou. It'll only hurt for a moment," Harry murmured after spitting into the palm of his hand. With that very same hand, he quickly fisted his cock to spread the makeshift lubricant.

With a shuddered sigh, I buried my head in Harry's neck as he gently took hold of my hips to lift me and aligned the tip of his member with my loosened hole.

"Go ahead and sink down when you're ready," Harry said lowly into my ear, planting a kiss behind it as if in encouragement.

"Har.. I... I can't d-do it on my own, can- can you help?" I asked shyly. Truthfully, I just couldn't do it.

"Okay love," Harry said eagerly and slowly forced my hips downwards so that his cock finally penetrated my hole. Harry paused when I tensed up at the realization that Harry was inside me. "How're you doing?" Harry asked, voice seeming somewhat strained as I clenched and unclenched around him from anticipation.

"Okay... just continue, please? Ignore me." I whimpered, knowing that if Harry stopped every time I tense up that he'd never fully get into me.

Harry took advantage of the invitation and gently continued to pull my hips closer to his despite all my pained whimpering. "Lou, are you sure that-"

"Ignore me," I gritted out again when Harry stopped moving my hips.

More sure of himself, Harry continued pulling me onto his cock.

However, I let out a loud yelp when my prostate was brushed against. Since he's so big, it just sort of always pushes against the sensitive gland. "Harry okay stop!' I whimpered when my own member had began to dribble out pre-come. "It's just s-so b-big." I spluttered out.

"Do you want me to stop, Lou? We're just about halfway through." Harry said into my ear. "You're really tight and it's just really hard to keep stopping like this."

I felt guilt coarse through me, "n-no. S-sorry."

This time when Harry continued, I didn't stop him despite all my whining and squirming from the prostate drag against my prostate.

Harry moaned and kept his hands at my hips though he stilled his movements. "Good?"

"F-Fuck m-me," was all I was able to pant out in a coarse voice.

Sparing no time, Harry immediately tightened his grip on my hips and began to lift me up then down on his cock. It started out slowly at first, but after awhile, Harry began to pick up the speed, causing me to sit up and involuntarily arch my back from the heat spreading throughout me. My mouth dropped open to allow loud moans and whimpers to flow freely from my mouth as well as small curses and Harry's name.

"So good Love, so good for me," the latter moaned lowly, probably enjoying the sight in front of him.

I sobbed when Harry held still suddenly, yet kept my bum flush against his pelvis. "Har, p-please?"

"Sh, Love," Harry calmed me with a kiss. "Want you to ride me."

Biting my lip and trying to even out my breathing, I placed my legs on either side of Harry's hips. Hesitantly, I ground my bum in figure eights, watching Harry's reaction. I must have done something right, because he let out a low moan.

Gaining more confidence, I slowly rose before sinking back down on Harry's cock. With each thrust, I built up speed as my orgasm came closer and closer. "Har, pl-ease?" I croaked out, my voice sounding way more wrecked than what I've ever heard it.

"No," Harry snarled, opening his eyes to reveal that they were darker than before.

The sight of Harry combined with his low voice caused me to not even register what he was saying, so I couldn't even help it when I gasped and spurted out come with an arched back and a shout of Harry's name. I slumped against Harry fully exhausted, however, Harry cursed lowly.

"I told you not to come," he said, I was confused to hear a hint of hostility in his voice.

However, I wasn't able to ponder on it much before Harry was placing his hands over my bum cheeks to lift me a few inches and began to thrust quickly up into my now sore passage.

"Har," I whimpered in protest at how raw it was starting to feel.

All Harry did was growl and snap his hips faster into me.

"Harry, stop," I sobbed as the pressure against my prostate didn't let up, causing me to see stars. Clenching my eyes shut, I buried my head into Harry's neck, tiredly begging Harry to stop.

Relief filled me when Harry finally came, causing him to loudly moan and his hips to splutter.

The pain and exhaustion became all too much as Harry gently pulled out, yet I could still feel the pain from how sore I was and I cried out.

That was when Harry froze up and seemed to pull out of whatever head space he was in and shook his head. With panicking hands, Harry pulled me away from his neck and assessed the situation.

"Lou? How badly did I hurt you?" Harry asked gently.

I shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're not bleeding..." Harry trailed off. "Would've smelt it," he added.

"You- you didn't stop," I whimpered. "You stopped b-before why didn't you stop then?"

With wide worried eyes, Harry pulled me close to him for a hug, "you gave me a fantastic night and I really enjoyed myself, especially because I got to spend time with you. So I'm sorry that I had to ruin everything and I hurt you, Lou. I swear that I didn't mean to it's just..."

"Just what?" I asked quietly.

"It's just that the other half of me, the half that can only hate, it's become stronger and sometimes I can't control it, especially more recently," Harry sniffled and I looked up to see a very upset Harry looking down at me with tear filled eyes. "I didn't want your first time to be like this," he answered honestly, voice cracking.

Not knowing how else to comfort him, I wrapped my shaking arms around him.

In that very moment, I became fully aware of just how much this mysterious change is affecting everyone, especially Harry. In that moment, I knew that I wanted to find out what this change is and stop it from happening so that it would no longer jeopardize Harry and I's relationship.

I've never seen it happen before now, Harry cry, but now that I have seen it, I want to do everything in my power to keep it from happening.

That night, Harry and I slept in the blanket fort, yet beforehand I was sure to place my flower outside of the tent, not wanting to accidentally crush the delicate petals.


	8. Part Two: "No!" Jimmy Protested

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Why hello there! I'll try to keep this note short. How are you? I have a concert tomorrow and I'm so excited!
> 
> QoTD: Do you play an instrument? If so, what instrument(s)? If not, then what instrument would you play?
> 
> I play the viola, a bit of piano, and my voice!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

It's early, really early.

In fact, it's so early that Harry is actually still sleeping.

I went outside to the lake's shore and sat cross legged on the sand there. For the past year and seven months, I've forgotten to take my daily break from reality. With things being so constantly busy, I just didn't have the time.

So, with the first rays of dawn just barely visible over the horizon, I sat and cleared my mind as I stared out at the still lake water.

In all honesty, I meant to only be outside for five minutes and return inside to Harry before he wakes up and notices that I'm gone.

However, with the sun's light now fully in view I was able to tell that it had been much longer than that.

I jumped in place when I heard a loud noise break the silence that once surrounded me.

"NO!" I heard a resounding inhumane growl come from inside the lake house.

Knowing that only Harry was inside, I quickly jumped up and rushed into our room. I gasped when I found an absolute mess.

The dresser's leg was broken off which had caused it to fall over and spill all of its contents. Bed sheets that were once in their rightful place are scattered about on the floor. Pillows were ripped open and the cotton insides were scattered all over the bed. In the wall there was a very large gaping hole what caused plaster to lightly cover the surface of everything.

In front of me Harry stood with his back turned towards me and shaking shoulders hunched over.

Sighing shakily, I calmly spoke, knowing that he probably wouldn't react well if I panicked as well, "Har, it's me, your Lou. Can you turn around and look at me?"

Harry's form remained unchanged as if he hadn't heard me, so I spoke up a bit.

"Har, can you hear me?"

There was a slow acknowledging nod.

"Can you face me? I want to see if you're hurt." I chose my words carefully.

Without speaking, Harry slowly turned around yet kept his head down, hiding his face from me as if in shame. I reached my arm out to carefully lay a hand on his cheek.

Harry quickly backed away and I dropped my arm when I caught a glimpse of his eyes, one of the irises were an unnatural shade of red where as the other was still a sad green. "Don't touch me," Harry spat.

"Why?" I whispered, ignoring the different eye color, though it still startled me, "do you remember who I am?" I asked carefully, wanting to make sure he wasn't confusing me with someone else.

"You're Lou," he said quietly. "My Lou. I hurt you..." Harry trailed off, referencing to our first date.

"That was a week ago, Har. I'm okay now." I tried to assure him. "You're okay right now too. You just need to calm down."

Harry was completely silent, just standing at least a foot away from me with his dark curly hair in front of his face, hiding it nearly completely.

"Do you know what day it is?" I asked, then continued after a pregnant paused that only contained silence. "It's the day that I'm supposed to go back to work. You and I need to get ready soon."

"Oh," Harry said lowly, yet I definitely heard it. "Thought you left... again." The last word seemed as though it was a sort of after thought.

"No, I'm here, your Lou." I grinned slightly when I saw that Harry swept his hair to one side so that only the red eye was covered and he was looking at me in interest.

"My Lou," he grinned in recognition, stepping hesitantly closer to me.

"Exactly," I nodded, taking another risky step forward to boldly sweep his hair back from his face to reveal his other eye. Complete and utter relief filled me when I saw that the red had returned to its rightful shade of green. "And you're my Har," I confirmed.

***

Neither of us even bothered to clean up the mess, however, between the two of us we made a list of things we'd need to replace and buy.

That list was made while the two of us sat in my car with Harry driving. Let's just say that I'm not quite qualified to drive right now, especially as it is after my... accident. I made a mental note to ask the doctor if I can drive again.

It was silent between us, neither of us wanting to bring up the morning anymore than needed, yet knowing that it awkwardly needed to be talked about.

I was the one to break that silence.

"Your eye was red," I cleared my throat.

"I know, they usually do that when I get that way," Harry spoke carefully.

"Only one, not both," I made my point clear.

That was when I was surprised to see Harry's brow scrunched and his lips were pursed in thought; very deep thought. For a long moment I thought for sure that he wasn't going to answer, however, he surprised me by mumbling, "interesting." He sounded genuinely puzzled.

It was silent again and I took a shaky breath, "what was that?"

"I only said interesting," Harry spoke normally, seeming past the subject as he glanced over at me a moment.

"That's not what I meant." I said, looking over at him.

"Oh." Harry paused, "what did you mean then?"

"That. The whole freak out thing that you did back at the house!?" I raised my voice from impatience, yet caught myself and lowered my voice.

Pursed lips were back. "Oh... that." Was all he simply said before returning to his thoughts, knowing that he was formulating an answer, "well... I don't know either. I've never had that happen before." He smiled at me this time as if it was nothing to worry about, so I sighed and believed that it was nothing serious.

"Okay then, I believe you," came my simple reply.

***

When Harry and I approached the front door, I was surprised to see that Burt the guard wasn't in his usual place by the door. I looked over at Harry questioningly, wondering if he had been laid off, however he just shrugged silently and held the door open for me.

The moment I walked in, I jumped backwards into Harry when there were a bunch of people standing in front of me including Simon (whom was finally out of the office), Eleanor (who was sitting at her desk rather than standing), Alice (who gleefully jumped up and down when she saw me), Burt (the security guard) Ed, William, and Klarise. The rest of the people that made up the crowd were officers whom I hadn't grown close to yet, though I knew they looked up to me.

"Welcome back Louis!" they all yelled in unison.

Harry placed his hands on either side of my shoulders from behind and lightly pushed me forward. "Welcome back Lou," Harry murmured into my ear so that only I was able to hear.

I grinned widely, "thank you so much everyone!" Looking back at Harry a moment, to let him know what I was going to do, I disengaged from his loose hold and rushed over to hug Ed, someone I haven't seen in a long while. William tugged on my pants and I looked down at my godson before immediately picking him up. I twirled him around causing him to squeal and giggle.

"Oh I missed you all so much!" I exclaimed, hugging William tightly.

Ed chuckled, "trust me, we missed you a lot too." He returned to hugging me. Klarise followed suit, joining the hug. Soon Alice piled on, then Simon (just for the Hell of it), then Burt (with an exclamation of an 'oh whatever'), and lastly Eleanor eagerly climbed over her desk. I couldn't help but full on smile as I was surrounded by a bunch of people who care so much for me.

Standing on the very tips of my toes, I looked back towards the door to see Harry standing there fondly smiling at us. "Come on over Har!" I shouted over all the commotion that everyone was making over my return.

Reluctant at first, Harry shimmied past everyone to get to me in the middle. When he did, he gained confidence and immediately picked me up, holding his hands at my thighs.

Eleanor immediately squealed, "I knew that you two were together!"

The hug disengaged and Simon stared at the two of us, me I'm sure with a very red face as I focused on not dropping William, and Harry, whom was too focused on me to care.

Simon hummed slightly before shaking his head, "I don't see it."

Seeming to realize our position, Harry carefully set me down and I in turn set William down, despite his clinging protests.

"We're just really friendly friends." I assured her, looking at Harry, "right?"

Harry winked at me, "right. Very friendly friends." There was extra emphasis on the 'very'.

"Do you not see what is happening before your very eyes right now!?" Eleanor screeched, wildly gesturing at Harry and I.

Simon raised an eyebrow and looked between Harry and I then Eleanor and shook his head, "nope. Now, speaking of these two, I have a case for you."

Eleanor sighed in exasperation and climbed back over her desk sulkily.

I grinned, looked around me to see the crowd dissipate as people made their ways back to their rightful spots.

"Believe me, it's good to have you back," Simon chuckled and peered over at Ed, Klarise, and William whom seemed so out of place with everyone bustling around them. "You three can go now. Hopefully Louis and Harry will be done with their case before you guys need to leave."

Ed smiled lightly at me and clapped me on the shoulder, "go give 'em Hell kiddo."

***  
"So what do you have for me on my first day back?" I asked, jumping a bit in place from excitement.

Simon silently flipped through various files sitting on his desk.

I took the silence as an opportunity and an invitation to continue talking. "Is there a serial killer on the lose? Is there human trafficking in Queens? Did some homeless guitar player get thrown in the subway tracks in Manhattan and ran over?" I stopped there when Simon finally chose a file that looked quite thin.

"Oh no, none of those," Simon chuckled, finally acknowledging that I had spoken. "Ah yes, a missing jogger." He said as he flipped through the papers inside the folder. "Let's start you back nice and easy. None of that crap you were rattling off earlier. All that''ll come later."

I could feel Harry's amusement from behind me as I took the folder into my hands, grumbling about it as I did.

"You know that they say the larger folders are easier-"

"And yet they're not solved for a reason-" Simon quipped back.

"Because you haven't assigned anyone to them yet a.k.a. Harry and I." I pointed out, raising my eyebrows to further prove my statement.

Simon and I eyed each other for a very full and long minute and a half.

"Uh yup. You're keeping that case, end of discussion," Simon leaned back in his chair and folded his fingers together laxly.

Standing more upright, I nodded accepting the hint of finality in his voice. I turned to Harry, "well then, a missing jogger case it is."

"It happened a couple weeks ago, you can check out anything you want, but since there isn't a real... crime scene per say, nor a body, it'll be quite dificult." Simon informed us as if we didn't know already.

"But you just said that it'd be easy!" I exploded.

"Easy for you two. Now go on and get to it." Simon waved Harry and I out of his room.

"This is going to be so boring," I groaned.

"You're being dramatic," Harry rolled his eyes.

Sighing, I decided to ignore him since he had chosen not to take my side in the matter.

"So what do you suggest first?" Harry asked.

"I guess that reading the file would be helpful..." I trailed of, going into work mode as I opened the folder, metaphorically signaling that I had accepted the case. "His name is Cooper Brown. He's married and has a set of twin daughters. There's an address and nothing else except that his wife said he went missing during his morning jog," I rattled off as I carefully read over each word.

"Not much to go on, but we've had less before," Harry pointed out.

I sighed, choosing to ignore the somewhat pep talk and pretend he didn't say anything at all, "let's check out the address and go from there."

"Agreed," Harry nodded, seeming slightly bummed out, though I chose to ignore it.

***

I bit my lip as I looked out the window.

Harry, of course, is the designated driver until I get the okay from my doctor that I can drive again.

"How you doing over there?" Harry asked, turning to me momentarily before placing his eyes back on the road when he noticed that I wasn't looking at him.

"Thrilled to be back at work, but not so thrilled about this case. It seems impossible because literally anyone could have drove by and snatched him, or maybe he just got lost, or maybe he ran away. I mean the possibilities are freaking endless and we have literally no information at all. I don't even know if this is my kind of case!" I got more and more worked up as I continued on.

"Well that's why we're here, best of the best, right? That just shows how much they need us to solve this case since it's too difficult for them to do it themselves," Harry pointed out softly.

I pursed my lips, "I guess that makes sense."

"Of course it does, I always make sense." Harry chuckled.

"Not always," I mumble to myself, though from the sudden shift in mood I could tell that he heard me from the way his smile immediately disappeared afterwards. I thought back to this morning.

I continued looking out the window.

I've never seen anyone that angry before, not even Harry; especially not Harry. He's supposed to be the one who keeps his cool in this crazy relationship.

I pursed my lips in thought.

***

It didn't take very long for Harry to pull into the drive way of Clair Brown's house. From inside I heard the very loud screeches of two little girls. I knew that something was happening when I heard a feminine gasp from an opened window.

Whether it was good or bad, I immediately jumped out of the car before Harry even pulled the key out the ignition. Wasting not a second, I ran up to the front door and proceeded to kick it down despite the pain that shot up my leg and Harry calling after me.

"NYPD, whoever is here come to my voice with your hands raised!" I yelled out, pointing my gun all the while. I fully regretted my decision as I saw a shaken Clair Brown slowly walk in from a hall with her hands raised. Behind her closely trailed two identical five year old girls, both with red teary eyes, scratches, and messy hair.

That was when I felt quite guilty when the whole situation became clear to me.

A large hand placed itself on my shoulder and I gasped and turned around at the suddenness off it all, causing the hand to quickly drop from its place. There stood Harry with his green eyes full of worry.

"Put the gun down Lou," Harry said gently.

Cursing quietly, I placed my gun in its holster and turned back to the three ladies with who had wide eyes and raised eyes.

"You can put your arms down now," I mumbled, looking at the carpet. "I'm seriously sorry about your door, I'll replace it and everything. I'm Louis Tomlinson with the NYPD and this is Harry Styles my partner with the FBI and we're here to ask a couple questions about your husband."

All three pairs of arms lowered.

Clair nodded, "that's fine, I don't want Liya and Carrie to be present for this."

"That's fine, my partner could watch them if you want." I offered for Harry.

Clair eyed Harry a moment before nodding, "that's fine."

Harry looked at me with an expression of shock as the girls immediately ran up to him, tugging his arms and speaking a thousand words per minute.

With a last look of distress, Harry was dragged off to the room of two five year old girls for a tea party or something.

"I really do apologize for the door," I apologized once again.

"It's really okay, it needed to be replaced anyway," she said softly, taking a seat on the couch. "Please sit down wherever."

"So Cooper disappeared disappeared during his jog, am I right?" I asked immediately getting down to business as I took a seat across from her.

"Yes, he goes every single morning for as long as I can remember," she nodded.

"Does he ever mention anything about his jogs?" I decided to ask, taking out of my notepad and a pen.

"Not really other than the weather. We don't really have a t.v. so he's like our weather man. Oh, he'd also from time to time talk about the latest gossip he'd find out from the neighbors." She answered. "But that's about it."

I nodded, taking careful notes and watching her stature, "how long would Cooper jog for?"

Clair paused before answering when there was a resounding screech of excitement from one of the girls. "It- it depends, but anywhere from half an hour to two hours. But he always left at the same time, 8:35 a.m., after the kids leave for school." She said with careful thought.

"You're sure on that time?" I asked.

"Yes," she nodded with absolute certainty in her eyes.

I believed her.

I tore out a piece of paper from my notepad that hadn't been written on and set it in front of her along with a pen.

"Could you draw out his usual route and any other routes he would have taken? Draw a house where there is one and make any notes you think would be important."

Clair nodded and took the pen with shaky hands as she began to draw.

It took her a full twenty minutes before she finished the drawing. The lines weren't straight, the houses were poorly drawn, and the notes weren't neat, but everything was legible enough to understand.

"I drew a key because I included in a few other drawings that you didn't really ask for but are important for navigating around." She insisted, pushing the somewhat of a map over to me using the coffee table.

I thanked her after glancing over the map once. Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed my wallet, grabbing a few hundred dollar bills and held them out to her, "for your door."

She shook her head, "no really, keep it. Just find my husband that'll pay for it all."

I nodded yet secretly slipped the bills in between the couch cushions, knowing someone would uncover it eventually.

"Girls!" Clair yelled for her twins as we both stood up.

Immediately two sets of quick footsteps could be heard rushing into the living room. I expected Harry to follow behind them but was confused to see that he wasn't right behind the girls.

"Harry?!" I called out.

I relaxed when I heard the tell-tale heavy slow footsteps of a certain curly haired giant. However, (I) screeched and the girls giggled when I saw that he was miserable looking and no longer had curly hair.

It had been flat ironed by two particular little girls.

"Oh my goodness!" Clair yelled. "Girls, you're grounded!"

"No it's completely fine ma'am," Harry shyly smiled. "I fully encouraged it."

***

"Oh God Harry, I'm never having twin girls, they were absolutely horrible!" I exclaimed.

"Quite," Harry agreed with a grimace as he sat in the car adjusting his bandana so that his even longer hair wouldn't get into his eyes.

"Clair drew us a map," I changed the subject.

"Great. So how many of the neighbors do we need to question?" Harry asked.

"Thirty," I answered seriously as I showed him the map with thirty houses drawn on it.

Harry paled even further, "I have to question thirty people with my hair looking this ridiculous?"

"No, I was joking, there's thirty houses around, but only like seven neighbors. This is a new model neighborhood," I explained.

Harry relaxed, "that's not too bad at all. How can you tell which have people in them?"

I pointed at a house on the map with a stick figure drawn inside, "I think that it's pretty self explanatory."

Harry's only response was an eye roll.

***

"Oh hello sir and ma'am-" a man answered the door that I had knocked on.

I immediately burst into laughter as Harry glared beside me and cleared his throat, speaking deeply.

"I'm actually a sir too," Harry spoke up.

I finally finished laughing soon after his comment.

The man in front of us slowly nodded, "my bad, it's a little difficult to tell with the hair and all. So what can I help with?"

"I'm with FBI and he's with NYPD. I assume you've heard about your neighbor's disappearance; Cooper Brown?" Harry spoke instead of me.

"I sure have officer, what would you like to know about him?" He asked tiredly, leaning against the door frame. That was when I noticed the dark rings under his eyes, rings that I didn't see while I was busy laughing. Faintly I wondered if Harry had seen them before me.

Harry looked over at me questioningly, not even needing to voice his silent question.

Regaining my lost composure, I cleared my throat, "he passed through here during his morning jogs." I stated to be confirmed.

"Yes he did, though I don't see him myself because I have to leave for work at four thirty in the morning. My wife sees him jog by while she's walking on her way home back from the bus stop." He said, careful not to leave out a detail.

"Is she here right now?" I asked.

He snorted, "of course not, she's at work. It's a Wednesday afternoon. The only reason why I'm here is because our son is sick."

"Thank you for your time then sir," I nodded. "I hope your son gets better soon."

"Trust me, same here," he groaned when there was a loud yell of the word 'daddy' and the man instantly disappeared into the house, closing and locking the door behind him.

I remember one time Felecite was so sick, but mum and dad had work to do so I volunteered to skip a day of school to take care of her.

Worst decision ever.

I got sick from her and it was a weekend so I didn't even get to miss school from it.

Unintentionally, I shuddered at the distant memory.

"You good?" Harry asked loudly.

I nodded, not wanting to bring up my family right then and there. "On to neighbor number two."

As far as neighbors two through six goes, there wasn't really any luck as they're either sleeping, at work, or walking to the bus stop to drop off a kid or two (maybe even three in some cases).

Neighbor number seven, the last one,( thankfully for Harry) had been just slightly... odd or off in a way that couldn't be explained in words.

I had knocked on the door gently.

The door hadn't been immediately answered, which was odd because I clearly saw the curtains by the door move two seconds after I knocked.

It took a full minute until I heard shuffling right from the other side of the door. Even then, the door hadn't opened.

I looked over at Harry questioningly. He motioned for me to knock again, which I did.

"Just wait!" I jumped when I heard those two words spat out very close to the door.

Harry turned to look at me with uncertainty, hand going to my mid back, the other going to his gun holster.

I pursed my lips as the door opened and there stood a man about twenty years of age in the doorway, eyeing Harry and I up and down, assessing the situation.

There was an awkward pause and I waited for someone to talk.

However, when no one did, I broke the unbearable silence and by doing do, the staring match as well.

"I'm with the NYPD and my partner here is with FBI," I said after clearing my throat. I purposely didn't mention either of our names just in case this guy was a creep or something (especially with the way that he was staring).

"Sir and ma'am," he nodded.

I chuckled slightly when Harry's cheeks filled with color at the title. "This is actually a guy sir. Don't let the hair fool you," I tried to crack a light-hearted joke to clear the previous tension.

The man didn't take his eyes off me, "talking to you."

For a moment, my brow furrowed in confusion, however, my face heated up (and Harry's paled) when I realized what he meant. This man had referred to me as ma'am.

I shuffled uncomfortably and uneasily. Harry's hand gently rubbed at my back for a moment as if to calm me.

"He is a guy too. Why do you think otherwise?" Harry asked slowly and carefully.

The man eyed me up and down for a very long moment before looking over at Harry.

"Because," he said simply. From the way he talked (in so few words) he reminded me of Paul. For a brief moment I missed being a part of their hunting group, but that only lasted for an extremely brief moment.

Harry changed the undesirable subject, deciding to take charge of the uncomfortable situation.

"Do you know Cooper Brown?"

"Pretty," was all he said, eyes flashing with recognition.

Harry took that as a yes.

"Did he jog by your house in the mornings?"

"Yes." He answered again.

"What are you doing in the mornings when you see him jog by your house?" Harry asked carefully.

"Sitting..." he trailed off, eyes flashing towards the lawn chair set up in the front yard. "Thinking." He added as an after thought, picking his words carefully though they were few.

"You do that every morning." Harry observed, insinuating a nod from the other man. "Anything you'd like to add?"

"Is pretty." His eyes landed on me, "like you."

I took a step back when the man took a step forward.

Harry's hand went protectively to my hip, holding me tightly in place as he nodded jerkily. "You stay there sir."

"Okay." The man said nodding once, keeping his eyes on me even as Harry spoke.

"You can go in your house now. We need to go," Harry said, his voice tight as he took complete control of the situation.

Harry looked over at me when the man didn't even acknowledge the spoken words. A nod from Harry was a sign for me to go on. Very briefly, his fingers possessively patted at my slightly protruding hip bone before allowing his hand to fall from my waist.

I nodded at neighbor number seven, "thanks for your help, have a good afternoon." Clearing my throat awkwardly, I began on the trek back to my car. Harry and I had chosen to walk to all the neighbors' houses, leaving behind my car at the Brown's.

The walk wasn't too long, maybe ten minutes or so, but it was all up hill which made it slightly difficult and caused for an even longer walk. Of course it isn't anything I can't handle, though.

Harry didn't take much time to catch up to me and when he did, he eyed me carefully, "you good?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" I answered honestly.

"Just wanted to make sure you were good with walking, especially with this hill. It's quite the walk," Harry pointed out.

"I'm completely fine with it," I assured him as we reached the car.

Harry was quiet, thinking over his own words. He seemed to come up with a response, yet kept it to himself, flaring my curiosity.

When we reached the car, I was startled to finally hear Harry's low voice.

"You've surprised me a lot."

"What do you mean?" I asked, not sure from Harry's tone if that was a good thing or not.

"I mean," Harry looked me in the eyes. "You're just so amazing. You've come quite a ways. We thought you weren't going to walk ever again, yet here you are walking up steep hills right next to me and keeping up with me like nothing. You just... you amaze me."

"Oh," I said quietly to Harry's well thought out statement. All I could answer was that one word (that isn't really a word) that's completely meaningless compared to what Harry just said.

Blood rushed to my cheeks from beneath the skin there.

Harry grinned at me, taking a moment to gently graze his knuckles against the newly formed blush. Without thinking, I leaned into the touch. However, to my dismay, those fingers were instantly gone as a tired expression made its way onto Harry's face.

Clearing my throat, I pursed my lips. I don't do well in situations like these, not quite knowing what words will bring Harry comfort, so I talked about the one thing that I knew would help the both of us.

"A- uhm search team should be organized to thoroughly search those routes that Clair drew. There should be some locals since they'd know the area better, but I do want some police in the group as well. They'll know the proper procedures and precautions to take." I explained, stalling to give myself just enough time to think.

Harry nodded, though there was a sort of dejected look in his eyes.

"Oh, and Harry?" I said as he started up the car, I got into the passenger seat.

"Yeah Lou?" Harry asked, as he turned to look at me, a flicker in his eyes.

His usage of my nickname caused for my heart to skip a beat and I nearly forgot what I was going to say.

Nearly.

"About what you said earlier... thank you. You're amazing too by the way," I smiled genuinely.

That was my well thought out response.

It wasn't much, but I could tell that it was enough from the was Harry warmly smiled back at me.

***

"Ugh!" I groaned, "how the Hell did we get stuck with this!?" I don't want to b on search party duty, we need to look into neighbor number seven! Sure this was all my idea, but why do I need to execute it!?" I exploded.

Harry shrugged, "they're short staffed here. It couldn't be helped. Why else do you think there wasn't a search party to begin with."

Hm... I hadn't actually thought of that...

"True..." I trailed off, my eyes catching a guy (whose name I think is Jimmy) poking at what could potentially be evidence. "Jimmy cut it out!"

"No!" Jimmy protested.

I blinked in shock, "um excuse you, but I'm the police officer here. You will do what I say." I began to walk towards him.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and defiantly kicked away whatever he had been poking at.

I groaned and mumble to myself, "there are such odd people in this town."

When I checked out what he had kicked, I was relieved to find that it was only an oddly shaped stick, barely even relevant to the case.

I was just about ready to give up with the stupid search until I found something.

When we searched deep in the woods, we (Harry and I) found spread out deep shoe imprints in the now dried earth. It must have been mud when the prints were actually made. After carefully following the shoe prints (some being more denatured than others) they had led to the edge of neighbor seven's back yard.

...Not odd at all...

With Harry's help, we made a cast of all the shoe prints, even the misshapen ones. We had gathered fourteen in total.

The plaster casts were carefully transported to the lab for analysis while Harry and I blocked off the area so that the prints wouldn't be denature even further.

This is going to be a long night, I thought to myself. Liam would have nodded in agreement if he were here.

I looked over to Harry instead since he was ten feet away from me.

Harry looked me in th eyes with the same knowing look.

Sighing, I got back to my data recording and mandating.

***  
Long night was a freaking understatement.

Try all night and into the morning and you wouldn't be incorrect.

That's right, pulled an unnecessary all-nighter for no reason in particular.

Technically, Harry and I weren't needed for the evidence presented, however they decided to keep us anyway (without promising the pay that comes with over time).

Right now, I feel absolutely miserable.

Salty fluid leaked from my red eyes and dried at my cheeks when I grew tired of wiping them away.

The tip of my nose seemed to be permanently flushed ruddy from the constantly cold lab temperatures.

My hair was frozen stuck up in multiple different directions from my fingers constantly running and tugging through it.

My heart burn nearly had me keeling over from the pain. Harry had provided me with coffee every couple hours to keep me awake. I drank seven coffees too many.

Tremors run though my hands from the lack of sleep and the overload of caffeine in my bloodstream.

I hide them in my pockets.

In short, I am miserable.

Harry, on the other hand, is not.

He looks very well rested and in tip top condition, despite the fact that he had been awake next to me and running around to get me coffee the entire time.

I sighed and decided to hide my current situation from Harry, though I think it'll be noticed since he sees the tiniest of details.

For example, while analyzing the shoe casts, he had noticed that there was a foreign rubber fiber embedded in it that no one else had noticed. To take it even further, he noticed the fibers matched with the shoe that made the imprint because the small grooves went in the same direction.

We were able to deduct that Cooper's shoe hadn't made the imprints since Clair mentioned Cooper had just gotten new running shoes from a brand that wouldn't tear apart so easily.

We were able to figure all that out all based on a small fiber that Harry had found.

So I feel it'd be difficult to hide my current state from Harry.

However, much to my amazement, Harry's face didn't falter even in the slightest when he walked over to me and examined me, looking me up and down.

"Want more coffee?" he asked, deducting that I was indeed in need of caffeine.

"No," I shook my head, voice hoarse from talking and giving orders all night. I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets, not wanting Harry to notice the shaking.

Harry nodded, "okay."

"I don't think we're needed in the lab anymore per say..." I trailed off in hopes that Harry would recommend an hour of sleep.

Much to my surprise, Harry seemed to forget that I was human and nodded, "let's research neighbor number seven now that we have the free time."

Holding in an exasperated sigh, I pursed my lips and nodded, following Harry to my office. Simon had been nice enough to keep people out of it.

However, what he hadn't considered was maintenance and stuff. After one and a half years, there's quite a lot of dust... and dead bugs... and maybe even live ones somewhere.

I instantly coughed upon entering my office as dust spores made their way into my lungs.

Harry chuckled at the action and took the liberty to wipe away the dust from my computer keyboard and its monitor.

I sneezed as the wandering debris went up my nose.

Harry cooed and motioned for me to enter my password, which I obliged in doing.

"You have a very long password," Harry observed.

"Yes, I do," I replied carefully, not really wanting to elaborate. "Do you remember the address?"

"Of course I do," Harry snorted, rattling off the address immediately.

I typed in the address quickly without answering, my mouth too exhausted to form the words I needed.

"His name is Matthais Harrison." I said, reading over the man's information. "He has a sort of metal disorder, which is why he's living there. His Aunt lives there and she's taking care of him. She... she went away for vacation a little over a week ago."

Harry hummed, "well.... that's not enough for a warrant, but we can go to his house to see what he's up to. It's almost getting to that time when he's supposed to be sitting in his yard."

"Harry, do you seriously want to watch some pervy stranger sit outside his house at," I paused to stand up and check the hanging and still ticking clock. "8:45 in the morning without any sleep whatsoever?"

"Yes, why not? You can nap in the car on the way there if you like. I mean, if you're tired that is." Harry said, an emotion filling his eyes; concern.

I looked down at the stained carpeted floor that should probably be replaced. Regret filled me to have caused such a deep concern in Harry.

There was a hand at my jaw gently tilting my head upwards.

My nervous eyes met his green calming eyes, causing my nervousness, and regret, and tiredness to melt away.

"Are you okay?"

"Now yeah," I nodded. I can do this; just like I used to. I can pull the all nighters and still catch the bad guys whilst I'm running on nothing but fumes.

"Good then, lets go," Harry's hand dropped away from my jaw, causing me to instantly regret my answer because all the previous negative feelings came flooding back.

***

I did exactly what Harry suggested, taking a short nap in the car on the way to the neighborhood.

Overnight, Cooper Brown hadn't turned up so we're left to find the still missing man.

Unfortunately for me, lack of sleep doesn't help in the slightest with the nightmares, in fact, it makes it that much worse.

I dreamt of that stupid house that had taken my mobility away from me. I was standing in the middle of the burning room instead of laying trapped beneath a pillar.

I was confused, especially when a familiar fire-y haired woman stood in front of me.

Instantly I knew that she had caused this particular fire.

She was here to end me, just as she said she would.

In my dream I was pale, even now that I'm awake I know that I'm still pale; I can feel it in my face, the absence of blood.

So, when I woke up, I just stared out the window, trying to regain some color and get rid of my fear.

On his occasional glance over to me, Harry's eyes widened. "You okay Lou?"

Unable to answer otherwise, I ran my fingers through my hair frusteratedly, "just... we'll talk later."

Though seeming quite worried still, Harry accepted the temporary answer, "later for sure."

Not five minutes later, we arrived a couple houses down from the neighbor number seven's.

"You're still tired. How about you try to sleep more until the time comes for us to look out for Harrison." Harry suggested. "You have a good eight minutes until we actually need to be on watch."

Due to my vivid dreams, I so badly wanted to disagree, however, I found myself accepting the offer, unable to do anything else as I was dead tired. My previous nap had made me that much more aware of that.

"That's what I thought," Harry chuckled fondly.

The last thing I felt before my world turned to darkness was Harry repeatedly smoothing back my hair.

Not once had I protested, knowing that it was an awkward angle for him, but I didn't care.

All that mattered was the sleep that I was finally getting.

***

My sleep was more peaceful this time.

It hadn't been riddled with the usual horrors that my nightmares hold.

Instead, my sleep was completely void of anything, no thoughts nor memory was important enough to interrupt my blissful sleep.

However, when I was awakened, it was to the most beautiful voice ever. In fact, I nearly thought I was dreaming, however from the spoken words I knew that it wasn't a dream.

"Mr. Harrison, you are under arrest for the kidnapping and assault on Cooper Brown."

My heart melted to hear how gentle and respectful Harry was despite the situation.

The back car door was opened and the whole car jolted as someone got in before the door was slammed shut.

I heard the front car door open then close after Harry got back in.

Large fingers ran through my hair again, probably messing it up, though I could care less.

"I know that you're awake," Harry murmured lowly.

I groaned, not wanting to open my eyes.

"I'm sorry Lou, but you need to supervise in the back. Police here don't have anyone on duty so we need to turn him in. I promise you can sleep after that. It's only eight minutes away."

I glared at him yet complied.

The whole ride there, I stared straight ahead at Harry's seat, keeping Matthais in my peripheral vision.

***

"Remind me what Harry's doing again?" Ed asked me as he flipped through the different channels on t.v.

"He's running a couple of errands, we need more food and stuff," I answered, my eyes flicking to our closed bedroom door briefly. Klarise, Ed, and William would have stayed there if it wasn't such a wreck, but Klarise is currently putting William to bed in the guest room.

Ed hummed. "How are you doing? It's been awhile since I've heard you talk."

I shrugged nonchalantly, many different things going through my mind at once. "I'm okay."

Adrenaline suddenly spiked through me when the t.v. turned off and Ed turned to me to yell. "Bull shit! Don't you dare lie to me! I can deal with you avoiding the topics, but you flat out lying!? I cannot, Louis William Tomlinson!" Ed was genuinely hurt and pissed off as he yelled at me.

I caused that.

I broke a little bit... okay maybe a lot.

I just... it's all too much yet not enough and I... I'm so stressed, like genuinely and I can't even talk about it with you . It really hurts that I can't . I just feel so upset that I can't /really/ talk to you. I miss my sisters, I miss my mum, and I miss my dad. I miss things being simple and uncomplicated. I hate these feelings that I feel and I don't know how to deal with them. I... I just... I don't know if I can do all of this-" I broke off in an excruciating sob.

Resting my elbows on my thighs and my head in my hands, I proceeded to bawl my eyes out.

Surprised by my sudden actions and rant, Ed rubbed my back, wrapping an arm around me; the angle would have been too awkward for him to do both arms.

He bent to my level, yet said nothing and just let me cry.

When the tears ran out and the hysterics set in, Ed forced me to sit up again and look him in the eye, "you are okay, Lou. You just got the wrong case for your first day back. You're not used to it all yet. It'll take a little getting used to it, but it'll be okay... you'll be okay, I promise that you will be."

I calmed down in Ed's hold, missing the fact that I couldn't do this everyday.

***

"Heard you had a little bit of a break down." Harry murmured later that evening.

Ed, Klarise, and William were all sound asleep now in the guest room, where as I couldn't sleep.

"I did..." I trailed off.

"Want to talk more about it?" Harry scooted closer to me, yet was still cautious of the situation.

"Do you..." I nearly dropped the rest of the sentence, thinking it was silly. However, after a moment of thought I continued confidently, "do you know a woman with hair made out of fire?"

Harry froze, eyes wide, "as a matter of fact, yes. Why?"

"Did she really kill my father?" I asked.

Harry looked down, "yes, and she is highly dangerous."

"What the Hell is she!?" I rose my voice, momentarily forgetting about the sleeping family. All I wanted to do was figure out the information so that I could bring justice to my father's death.

"Human," Harry answered, a bittersweet half smile on his face.

I spluttered, "but- but the hair!"

"Her name is Seraphine and she has the power of pyrokinesis," Harry answered solemnly. "In more simple terms, she can control fire with her mind."

It chilled me to know that she was human just like me, and yet she was still different in a way that I couldn't even begin to relate to.


	9. Part Two: A Day In the Life of...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Why hello there! It's been awhile hasn't it? There's a reason for that, which I don't feel like discussing right now, but long story short, I'm super sick right now.
> 
> Anyway, happy belated holidays!
> 
> QoTD: how were your holidays?
> 
> Christmas: pretty good, family visited.
> 
> New Years: also very well, I watched Lord of the Rings with my family, which was the best thing in the world.
> 
> Anywho enjoy!

"Ah Louis, nice to see you here. Haven't seen you for awhile," Dr. Lawrence flashed me a quick smile.

"Well, I haven't had reason to see you, Lawrence," I pointed out to my personal doctor.

"True, I guess," He nodded, getting straight to the point, "pants off. I sincerely hope that you're wearing underwear."

His statement earned an eye roll on my part as I undid my belt, zipper, and button to pull my pants down.

Thank goodness Harry isn't here, he would've flipped. He's at a crime scene right now, so he's picking me up afterwards.

I stared straight ahead as Lawrence inspected the apparent burn scars on my legs. His gloved hands lightly pressed at the scars in different places with purpose.

"They healed quite nicely, I thought they'd be much worse so this is quite good. Do they ever hurt?" He asked referring to the scars.

"No," I answered honestly.

"Can you feel where I touched you?" He asked since the burns I had damaged the nerves there.

"Yes, I can," I nodded.

"That's a good sign." Lawrence nodded as he took my foot in his hand and bent my leg at the knee until the top of my thigh was pressing against my stomach.

"Does this hurt?"

"Nope," I popped the p, which seemed to act as a cue for my leg to be set down.

The same procedure was repeated for my other leg.

That didn't hurt either.

"Do your legs hurt when you walk?" He asked.

"No," I answered honestly.

"How about when you exercise them?"

I was nearly embarrassed to answer (especially because I am a police officer who should be in tip top shape), "I don't exercise."

"Well you should, especially with your line of work." He looked at his clipboard before popping the next unfortunate question. "Do your legs ever hurt?"

I looked him in the eye as I answered, "yes."

"When?" He asked, not seeming surprised at all.

That was when I looked down at my feet, knowing I definitely wasn't going to be allowed to drive again. "When I over work them like running for more than ten minutes or heavy lifting, but that's about it."

Lawrence tutted, "exercise and stretching will help immensely with that. The pain your describing is normal, it's a sign that you are healed, but you sort of re-injure yourself when you take it too far."

I slowly nodded, "so can I drive?"

"I'm afraid not until I see some more improvement from you. On a lighter note, how about we go through your physical while you're here. I have nothing booked until 12:00 p.m."

"Sounds good," I offered a weak smile.

By the time my physical was over, I was sitting outside the clinic waiting for Harry to pick me up.

Three minutes later, Harry parked my car in front so that I could see that he was there.

I walked to (my) car and sat in the passenger seat with my arms folded across my chest.

"So what's the good news?" Harry asked without even looking at me as he backed out of the parking spot.

"There is none," I pursed my lips bitterly.

Harry's smile dropped, "absolutely nothing? You're not sick are you?"

"No, I just," I sighed frusteratedly gathering my wits about me. "I just can't drive still."

Harry relaxed, "oh that's it?"

"And I need to exercise," I grumbled, sinking further into my seat, upset that Harry wasn't taking this as serious as me.

"Lou, that isn't as bad as it could be." Harry pointed out.

"I know, but it's bad enough for me," I protested. "I'm not in a wheelchair anymore, and yet I'm disabled even still."

"And I understand that. But what you don't seem to understand is that you're alive and well. I can help you with exercising just like last time."

I pursed my lips and changed the topic, not wanting to accept the offer too soon. "So what's the case?"

Harry looked at me once as if checking to see if I was okay before answering, "there's a... uhm suicide, but it's really starting to look more like a murder from all the evidence."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well the victim's wrists were slit with a razor, which was present at the crime scene. The first odd thing was the lack of fingerprints on the metal, yet the victim wasn't wearing gloves or anything."

I slowly nodded, "okay continue."

"She bled out. There was no way she could've been alive after the amount of blood that was left everywhere." Harry stated clearly.

"Okay, so she died from that, your point is?" I rose a skeptical eyebrow.

"She somehow managed to hang herself even though she was already dead," Harry said lowly.

"And you're absolutely certain she wasn't alive?" I asked carefully.

Harry's words were spoken with finality. "Completely. There would've been bruises around her neck, but there weren't because of the blood loss. Even if she had been alive at that point, she would have been way too weak and unable to move."

I hummed in agreement, "so it's official, we have a murder on our hands."

"Pretty much. We have bloody shoe prints all inside the house as well as outside. They're being analyzed now. Fortunately for you, you don't need to stand around while they're being examined. We have people to investigate. Madison Kepler's family is quite rich, so we need to solve this as quick and quiet as we possibly can."

I pursed my lips... Kepler... I know that surname... where have I heard it before?

Being the very tech savy person I am (and too stubborn to ask Harry) I took my cell phone out and google it. An unintentional gasp left my lips.

The Keplers!

Madison Kepler is a movie director like her father. Keith Kepler, the oldest brother is an actor. Bertha, the baby of the Kepler family, is pursuing music, just as her mother is.

I paled. To be taking on such a case is an honor, yet quite stressful all at the same time.

A blessing and a curse.

"Do-do you know who the Keplers are?" I asked, expecting him to know.

"I know Madison is a movie director... I also know that you're pretty damn cute when you stutter and stumble over your words." Harry chuckled.

I rolled my eyes as I went over how important the family is as well as their very successful careers.

By the end of my explaining, Harry was slowly nodding, "and you have a man crush on this... Keith Kepler character. Am I right?"

I blushed, "just a small one. I mean, he was an inspiration for me. I even wanted to act because of him when I was in middle school. He's gay, just like me, and he's married to a guy even though his parents don't agree. So yeah, I look up to him." I cleared my throat, "I mean (looked) up to him."

"Good, that better be it because you're mine," Harry nearly growled, causing for my stomach to flutter.

"Yes, your Lou," I mumbled out my assurance. "So where are we off to?"

"The morgue," Harry answered, voice back to normal. "Madison's body should be there by now." He went to further explain.

I slowly nodded, reaching a hand to turn on the radio. Surprise filled me to hear Ed's voice.

My first thought was 'hey that's Ed!' My second thought was 'what the Hell is he doing on the radio!?'

I checked to see if my CD was in, though I was confused to see that it wasn't.

"Th-that's Ed fucking Sheeran!" I spluttered in surprise.

Harry nodded, "I know, I recognize the voice..."

'And that was Little Bird from Ed Sheeran. He was once with the NYPD, but now works in D.C. Who knew he had such a voice on him? Ed just made an-'

"Well I did," I mumbled to myself as my phone rang. I turned the radio down to answer. "Hello?"

"Louis!" I heard Ed's excited voice answer.

"Ed! I just heard your song from my CD that you gave me on the radio!" I exclaimed.

"I know! There's a reason for it though!" Ed exclaimed, barely containing his excitement.

"And why's that?" I asked out of confusion.

"I proposed to Klarise! I released a few songs to the public to make some extra money for the wedding. I really hope you don't mind."

I smiled so big that my cheeks hurt and I'm pretty sure that I looked crazy, "that's fantastic Ed! It's okay, I really don't mind it."

"Thank you so much Lou! I need to go now! William's about to get into the fridge! The one thing we haven't childproofed."

I chuckled, "that's fine, I'd probably get into the same predicament if I had kids. Talk to you later Ed. Congrats again."

"Thanks Louis, bye!"

He hung up.

Harry glanced over to me, "what was it? Sounded like good news."

"Well that's because it was! Ed proposed!" I answered in excitement.

Green eyes lit up, "that's great. We're going to have to drive down there and celebrate sometime soon."

"I agree," I nodded, glad that Ed has finally found someone right for him.

I glanced over at Harry, faintly wishing that I was in Ed's shoes with Harry in Klarise's.

That thought soon left my mind as Harry parallel parked in front of the building we needed to go to.

When we walked into the morgue, I was baffled to see Alice holding a recorder and making audio notes instead of the usual coroner.

Her eyes automatically lit up when she saw Harry and I. She finished up her verbal note and hit the stop button.

"Louis!"

"Why does everyone keep greeting me like that!? But hi Alice!" I exclaimed, unable to hug her as she was wearing her gloves and a bloodied apron overtop her usual lab coat.

She looked over at Harry, "hello Harry."

He offered her a small yet genuine smile, "hey."

She squinted her eyes at us, "are either of you two going to be busy in the next two days?"

I looked over at Harry who shook his head and I answered for the both of us, "just working on this case."

"Good then. I'm going to have some over time to vacation off after this." She smiled, causing the crinkles to show by her eyes. "How about the three of us go out for dinner just like we planned before your accident."

I was surprised by her suggestion, shocked that she had remembered. This time I nodded when Harry looked over to me, so he answered. "Sounds good. How about after we finish this case?"

"Sweet!" she fist pumped the air.

"What are you doing here running autopsies, isn't that outside of your field?" I asked, motioning to Madison's lifeless body.

"Exactly that Lou-eh," she replied goofily. "Running autopsies, duh."

I laughed really loudly from how she butchered my name, "but seriously, this is the coroner's job last time I checked."

"Well it still is, but they're all off at some convention or whatever. I've spent enough time around them to know the procedures and all. Not to mention, it doesn't bother me to cut into a dead human being so..." she shrugged, eyes going to Madison's body.

"Makes sense. Speaking of... that," I followed her gaze.

"Oh right. I'm guessing you're here for Madison."

I nodded solemnly. "Tell us what we don't know yet." I said, referring to Harry and I.

"There was wine and a drug in her system. The drug is Rohypnol, or popularly known as the date rape drug. You probably know why already. There isn't any sign of sexual assault, but the drug could explain the lack of defensive wounds. Other than that, there's nothing new here that I've found thus far."

Mulling over the new information, I slowly nodded and turned to Harry. "The killer is more than likely male. He's probably nervous or unsure of himself which is why he didn't go through with the sexual assault."

"That makes sense as to why the kill was somewhat thrown together and not thought out well. They weren't thinking properly. Could have panicked," Harry bounced his idea off of me.

I nodded, "I agree on that. We should rule out any enemies because she wouldn't have drank wine with someone who hated her guts. For them to be in her home, they had to be trusted, a co-worker, friends, family, a boyfriend."

"That's also true. It's less likely to be a boyfriend if there wasn't an assault. The death would be meaningless to him because he wouldn't get anything out of it."

"How about we go talk to the family, then go to her work place to pick up fan mail just in case. Who knows if this is the work of only one killer."

Harry looked at me in somewhat awe, "it surprises me sometimes how much you know."

Alice waggled her eyebrows at me, "is there something I'm missing between you two?"

I blushed heavily, "no, not at all."

"Mhm," she nodded slowly and skeptically.

***

I cannot believe that I have a crying Keith Kepler siting on his couch in front of Harry and I as his husband held him, hiding his apparent tears.

The sight was touching.

I felt like crying and asking for both of their autographs.

Harry clearing his throat broke me out of my mini trance, though my voice cracked slightly even still, which didn't go unnoticed by Harry. "Excuse me Mr. Kepler-"

My face heated up in embarrassment at the honest mistake as the pair both looked at me.

"I meant Keith. I know that this is hard for you, but-"

"Hard!?" He snorted. "This is beyond difficult in the very least! You don't understand how it feels to lose a loved one so close to you! The emotions that run through you are absolutely inefferable!" He yelled at me, catching me off guard.

"Sir, you need to cooperate with me so that we can catch her killer." I tried to keep my cool. Harry looked over at me out of concern.

"Killer!?" He spluttered. "First she's killed herself and now she's murdered!?" He seethed standing up now as if it was my fault. "Why can't you people make up your fucking minds!? Isn't this your job!?"

Neither Harry nor I caught the slip up in that moment, too stunned to even think.

"Could you calm down? I know how important she was to you. Right now you aren't helping us with solving this. You're making this worse and even more difficult to solve." I pointed out.

"Oh, so now you're blaming families for your own incompetence and inability to solve one fucking case on your own!? What you're basically telling me is that it's my fault you can't do your job. Next thing I know, you'll be pinning her murder on me! How would you like to be told 'I'm sorry Mr. Tomlinson, but it's your fault that your younger sister was killed. Turns out you did it all along!'?"

I sharply inhaled as each sentence jabbed a sucker punch straight to my heart as he insulted everything that I have worked so hard for. My heart ached to know that it probably is my fault that my sister is missing, and that she probably is dead. I should have somehow looked after her better, or just something.

It's all because I couldn't solve her case.

Anger filled me, as did sadness and I cleared a lump from my throat, "can I use your bathroom?"

The husband surprised me by answering sympathetically instead of Keith, "sure. It's just down that hall. Second on your left."

Without a thank you, I walked to the bathroom, immediately locking myself in.

I did not allow myself to cry, instead I cleared my mind and focused on the good things, a list that continually grows longer.

Harry's smile.

Ed's upcoming wedding.

Harry's voice.

Harry, Alice, and I's dinner outing.

Harry's laugh.

William's useless babble.

Harry's comforting hugs.

My feelings for Harry.

Harry's kisses.

I grinned as my very being seemed lighter, getting rid of all the crap Keith had placed there through his harsh words.

Upset people tend to be erratic and don't think about what they say. I thought over what Keith had said and that's when I caught Keith's slip up.

Quickly splashing water on my face, I exited the bathroom in confidence, head held higher.

With a determined fire in my eyes, I stood in front of the couch that I had previously been seated at. Crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow, I immediately pointed out the mistake to gain the upper hand.

"This is the first you're hearing of your sister's death, am I correct?"

Keith glared at me, "the fuck does this have to do with anything?"

"Would you just answer the damn question?" I countered, unfazed by his words. I don't want him to know that he got under my skin.

He arrogantly rolled his eyes, "yes it is."

"Then why did you earlier say that she killed herself? I only said that she was killed and never gave any other impression. You wouldn't have said suicide if you hadn't been put under that impression before Harry and I coming here."

That was when Keith paled and looked down. "Well... that's because I went to visit her this morning but... well I found her hanging with slit wrists."

I looked over at his spouse, "do you concur? I hope you know I can get a warrant to search this place now that you've admitted to seeing your sister's dead body first."

"I was with him before that, we had quite the busy morning..." he winked subtly at Keith, "and evening."

"So you left shoe prints Keith?" I asked.

"Yes," he mumbled, looking down.

"Well, I'm going to need those shoes."

"What!? But they cost like hundreds of dollars!"

"Does it look like I'm playing with you here? It's evidence. Give it or be arrested for with holding it." I hardened my face.

Let's just say that we ended up with the shoes.

***

As suspected, shoes were a match.

"It was a very good catch," Harry murmured to me. "I would have caught it, but I was too focused on how rude he was being to you."

I nodded, "yeah, I know you would've."

Harry looked me in the eyes from across the car console. "I just was assessing how much of a threat he was to you and I was ready to pounce on him just in case, because I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Okay," I said quietly, not sure on what more I should say.

Harry continued, "and that's because I really care for you so much that I think I'm falling for you even further."

And, well, okay then.

I've never had someone say something like that to me, it makes me feel like a teenager all over again. When someone says something like that in the movies and books, they usually kiss... right?

Yes. They do.

Are those words an underlying cue to receive lip to lip connection? Probably not, because lets be honest, romance doesn't happen just like that.

I don't care right now, but I'm going for it.

I looked at Harry's pink plush lips then into his green eyes that were filled with such vibrancy and curiosity.

Biting my own lip for a moment, I leaned my head further into his space.

"Can I...?"

Harry seemed to understand what I meant, hesitancy filling his eyes, "are we really doing this?"

I shrugged while avoiding his gaze. "I mean, if you want to."

"Of course I want to, Lou."

My heart fluttered at the nickname, causing for my mind to become muddled with meaningless words, "I um... are you sure? I mean-" Doubt began to fill my head.

Without letting me finish my sentence, Harry reached over the console and took hold of my jaw. A gasp left me as Harry forcibly placed his mouth against mine.

Having slightly more experience, I applied pressure against his lips. A barely audible growl left his throat when I parted my lips to brush my tongue against his own lips. Harry didn't hesitate in taking the opportunity to tangle his tongue with my own, causing my stomach to twist in hot pleasure.

To my surprise, Harry was the one to break the kiss, however, he placed his hands at my sides to easily lift me over the console and into his lap.

"Harry!" I protested, but Harry only continued kissing me. A whimper was muffled into Harry's mouth when he began grinding upwards. Against my will, I felt my jeans begin to tent as Harry continued, hips moving against mine and tongue overly exploring my mouth.

Letting the pleasure consume my being, I began to slowly and awkwardly grind against Harry. At first, my movements were slow and sloppy, but with Harry's guiding hand at my hip, I was able to match his tempo.

But then, all of the sudden, so many things happened all at once.

I would have jumped off of Harry's lap if it weren't for the demanding grip he had on my hips. Though the kiss was broken from me jumping, Harry decided to continue mouthing at my neck.

The whole reason for this chain of events was that Harry sped up his hips without any warning and caused me to bump into the steering wheel. Which made the car's horn honk, which very much startled me.

That car horn brought me back to my senses and reality all together.

"Harry, y-you need to st-stop," I whimpered and gasped when Harry harshly bit down at my pulse point.

"Why?" Harry said lowly. It was muffled in my neck. More importantly, it wasn't a voice that I recognized as Harry's. It was a darker voice full of nothing but lust.

"Har, c-can you l-look up at me please?" I tried not to stumble over my words, somewhat succeeding.

Grunting in annoyance, yet complying, Harry slowed his hips and pulled away from my neck to look at me, now at eye level with me.

I blinked twice (and maybe even a third time) when I saw a ring of red around the iris of Harry's right eye.

"We, we need to stop okay? How about we go now, we can always finish this later if you want to. Right now we have a case to solve, remember?"

This seems to clear Harry's head as well and he slowly nodded.

"Okay," he said, voice raspy.

I pressed a chaste kiss to Harry's lips in departure before climbing to get back to my seat.

That small kiss was the kiss that I had initiated.

***

"Our poor Keith must be devastated," Martha, Madison's mother spoke. "She always supported him being... gay. I can't believe he's gone." Tears began to fill her eyes and she fanned at her eyes to keep them at bay.

"He was ma'am, but he'll be okay. His husband seemed to really be helping him out." Harry spoke truthfully.

I looked carefully between Martha, Eric (the father), and Bertha. My eyes didn't linger long on the first two, but Bertha was the one of interest to me. She kept her head down, looking at her black painted nails that were folded in her lap.

Subtly, I bumped Harry's shoulder with my own, interrupting his line of questioning. I nodded my head inconspicuously at Bertha and he looked over to her, nodding his head slightly.

"So, Bertha. Do you know anything that'd help us?" Harry asked.

Surprised by the question, Bertha's head snapped up. "N-no." She stuttered.

"Are you sure? People usually don't stutter when they lie."

I elbowed Harry, realizing I hadn't told him that she has an unintentional stutter. Martha, however, got to it before I could.

"She's been like that since two years old." There was a hint of bitter amusement in her voice. She looked at Bertha. "Sweetheart, please don't hide important things from the police. If you don't want your dad and I to know, you can speak to them alone if you'd like."

Slowly, but surely, Bertha nodded and that was the confirmation that caused for Martha and Eric to leave the room.

"What would you like to talk about?" Harry asked gently, letting her take charge somewhat of the questioning.

"Madison had-d a-a ver-y m-mean h-hater. H-He was a-a t-t-total cr-eep and a-a li-ar. M-m-mail ca-ame in from h-h-him ev-ery d-day. A-about a-a week b-before a-all th-this, h-he st-opped se-se-se- uh!" She pulled her hair as she got frustrated.

"It's okay, you don't need to continue. He stopped sending them, right?" Harry asked.

Bertha nodded in confirmation.

"How do you know about this guy?"Harry asked.

Bertha held up a finger and quickly got up to run up the spiral stair case.

I looked over at Harry, "think this could be our guy?"

"It's very well possible." Harry nodded slowly.

Soon enough, Bertha came back downstairs with two masses of rubber banded envelopes, one per hand. "D-didn't w-want h-her boyfr-friend t-to w-worry. Th-think sh-she st-still h-has sssome." Without hesitation, Bertha thrust the full envelopes into Harry's hands. "D-don't w-w-w-ant."

***

After careful analysis of Madison's house a second time, we found a total of ten letters with the same postage stamps, ink stamps, no return address and signature as the other two hundred and fifty three letters.

Harry and I took turns reading the special ten letters, figuring they were different than the others, more important.

Basically, in each letter, this man stated that he was Madison's true father because her mother had an affair twenty two years ago.

Lets just say there were pictures to prove it.

I outwardly shook my head out of disbelief. How could Martha do that to the entire Kepler family?

In the most recent letter, he wanted to meet with Madison.

"We need to do a DNA test to see if this man was really her father or if he's just crazy. After we do that, we need to do a DNA test to even see who this guy is. Since the under side of the envelopes are sticky, he probably licked them. Lets get these all quickly to the lab." Harry spoke before I could speak of the injustice.

***

Madison and this man's DNA is in fact a 50% paternal match, meaning he is Madison's father.

The man's name is Jeffery Thomas.

He's sixty years old and in a retirement home since he can't work from a past injury.

The retirement home is, in fact, out of state.

"Should we pay him a visit?" I asked quietly.

"How about we do that tomorrow. He is out of state after all. In the mean time, how about we contact the boyfriend and try retracing Madison's steps last night." Harry suggested.

It pained me to admit it, but Harry was right.

I thought back to how she was found, a formal dress was on her body and high heels were by the door.

"She was dressed up for something. Do you think she was meeting with her father?"

"That is a possibility. We need to pull her credit card records. How about you do that while I try contacting the boyfriend." Harry said, no, commanded.

We continued to my office where I immediately logged into my computer. First, I provided Harry with the phone number, then, I got to the credit card history.

Pursing my lips, I shook my head. There was absolutely nothing for yesterday, or the day before that for that matter. However, for every day besides those two, she had used her credit card, be it to buy from Starbucks or to buy gas for her car.

When Harry hung up my office phone, I shook my head, "no luck here."

Harry nodded, "same here. Boyfriend is outside the U.S. He'll have to be informed once he comes back."

"Maybe we can pull cell records," I pointed out.

"Her phone is in evidence. Do you want me to get it?" Harry stood up, expecting me to say yes.

However, I surprised him and said no, getting up instead.

Harry shrugged, "okay. That's fine."

When I retrieved the phone with gloved hands, I immediately went to the recent call logs and went over the names with Harry.

There were two numbers that stuck out since they weren't in her contacts. The first one showed up multiple times, three times a week. Odd enough, last night, she had called this number at least twenty times without anyone picking up. The eerie thing is that she called a couple hours before her time of death. 

We dialed the number and I put it on speaker phone.

Six rings later, it went to voicemail.

"This is Jeffery Thomas, leave a message when the thing beeps and maybe I'll get back to you," there was a  
beep, cutting off Jeffery's labored breaths.

I slowly nodded. "So she was calling him. Doesn't look like he's been picking up. How about we try this number." I suggested after hanging up.

Harry only nodded in agreement.

I dialed the second number. It only showed up once, a week before Madison was killed.

The phone didn't even ring once before someone picked up.

"Hello Ms. Thomas. I'm sorry but we don't offer refunds. Would you like to make another reservation?" A peppy voice asked.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but this is Louis Tomlinson from NYPD. I'm not sure what you mean by Ms. Thomas, but can you tell me what you mean by no refunds?"

"Oh gosh, Ms. Thomas reserved a table for two yet she never showed up last night." She explained.

"Do you know who she was supposed to show up with?" I asked.

"No idea, just that the last name is Thomas. Madison always paid cash in advance and used the last name of who she was coming with."

"Thank you ma'am." I nodded and hung up. "What if she was waiting for Jeffery to show up and when he didn't, she called him. Maybe she got a visitor before he came."

"That' what I'm starting to think. How about we call Jeffery's retirement home." Harry suggested. "You know, to check up on him. He wouldn't have stood Madison up if he wrote her for a consecutive two hundred and seventy three days."

While nodding in agreement, I began to sleuth around for the phone number and immediately dialed it on my land line, putting it on speaker phone.

"Hello, this is Shady Shoals retirement home, how may I help you?"

I gestured for Harry to take over as he is FBI with jurisdiction all over the U.S., unlike me.

"Yes, hello sir, I'm with the FBI and we have reason to suspect one of your residents have run into trouble."

"You know, we're not allowed to check on the residence, but what's their name? I might make an exception."

"Jeffery Thomas. Please check on him, his daughter is dead and I don't want him to end up like that."

The person on the other end hesitated, "just wait. I'll go check on him. He's been acting odd and hasn't really left his room since the day before."

Three minutes later, the guy came back, "oh shit, he's dead! I- wh-what do I do!?"

"Call your local police deepartment, have them take care of the autopsy and processing the crime scene. I'll get back to you when I can." Harry hung up. "Well shit. So, what do you think?"

I thought over my answer slowly and carefully before making the accusation, "I think that Martha did it."

"Really? Why not Eric the quote unquote 'father'?" Harry asked.

"He wouldn't have killed the daughter too, he would have killed the wife instead," I pointed out. "Martha was trying to entirely erase her past mistakes."

"Do you really think she killed them both?"

"Jeffery sure, but she could have had someone else off Madison... Harry..." I trailed off as my mind came to a conclusion, "what if... what if Keith isn't as innocent as we think he is? I mean, he is the only person who's actually been at the crime scene. Looking back now, the footprints were there the same amount of time as the actual blood source, because they were both dry this morning. There wouldn't be footprints if he visited her this morning because the blood would have been dry already."

Slowly, Harry nodded, "you do have a point there. Let's go disrupt Martha's sleep."

***

Harry sighed out a breath of relief. He was ready for our dinner date plus one with Alice. (She's the plus one.)  
I, on the other hand, am nowhere near done.

"Lou, you're perfect already." Harry chuckled as I continued staring in the bathroom mirror, trying relentlessly to fix my hair.

"But Har, I need to look presentable. Look at my hair, it does not qualify as presentable nor perfect."

The taller man wrapped his arms around my waist and placed his chin on top of my head, staring at me in the mirror. "Well, you're perfect to me if that counts for anything."

I bit my lip and almost gave in, however I shook my head, "I'm not so sure if you're right."

"Louis, have I ever been wrong? Your hair is just fine, leave it."

***

"Oh, and your hair looks fabulous by the way," Alice exclaimed as she took a sip of white wine.

"Thanks Alice," I grinned slightly as Harry rose his eyebrows as if saying 'I told you so'. I ignored him. "So how much vacation time did you take off?"

"Three weeks! I can't believe I was actually granted that much time off!" Alice said excitedly.

"Yeah, that is crazy," Harry nodded in agreement as he brought a forkful of food to his mouth.

"Right! I'm quite excited. It's actually good that we're doing this now because I'm going to be packing the next couple of days. Believe it or not, I'm going to Italy to visit family. Have you been before Louis?"

"No, actually. I've barely been out of state before the accident." I informed, taking a drink from my glass of iced tea.

"We might go someday though. I'm planning on it," Harry aimed as a general statement.

"It'd be nice to travel around a bit before settling down." I agreed, causing Harry to quickly turn to me in question, which I decided not to acknowledge.

"Well, you should definitely visit Como, there's a beautiful lake there. And nothing beats and Italian pizza, so if you go you should definitely try that." Alice listed the things off as if she had ben waiting to say them awhile ago.

"Good to know." Harry nodded, regaining his cool. "So why were you out before? When we had first met remember?"

I know that it was pure curiosity, but I nudged him from under the table and cleared my throat.

"Louis, it's okay that he asked. I don't mind it, you know that. Now Harry, I had an abortion after going through a lot of different things and I couldn't handle a baby let alone three."

"Three?" Harry and I questioned in unison.

"Yep, triplets," she nodded shortly.

"Do... do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked carefully.

Alice hesitated, "my husband killed himself... at the time, neither of us knew that I was pregnant, but after I found out I knew I couldn't take care of them. So yeah. That's pretty much it."

"I'm so sorry Alice," I said. "You don't deserve any of that."

"No one does, honey, it happens to the best of us. Let's get off this awful subject. How's work treating you? "

"Had quite the case recently," Harry chuckled.

I chuckled as well, "oh God it was crazy Alice. We put Keith and Martha Kepler in jail! You should have seen their faces!"

"No you did not!" Alice gasped in shock.

"Yes we did! Martha was even wearing hair curlers as I put the cuffs on her!" I said in between laughs.

That was when Alice began to burst into a fit of giggles, and I followed soon after.

However, even after Alice stopped laughing, I continued. Only when I felt eyes on me did I stop.

Blood rose to my cheeks when I saw Harry staring fondly at me and Alice looking between the two of us with a raised eyebrow.

I cleared my throat, "so yeah..."

"So Harry," Alice also cleared her throat. "You and Louis..."

Harry broke the gaze to turn to her, "yeah... What do you mean?"

"So, what's your relationship?" Alice asked, a casual smile on her face. "You seemed to have grown closer since I last saw you."

"Oh, well... we're just friends, Harry said truthfully.

That time when he said it, he broke my heart because he wasn't even lying.


	10. Part Two: The Unfilmed Video

Hi guys! I'm too upset to do a proper author's note, so I'm sorry if you're disappointed while reading this... if you're reading this.

Next update may take awhile because I still have chapters to type up and edit.

Anyway, QoTD: when was the last time you've gotten really mad and or upset?

My answer: really upset, today. Really mad, last March... or maybe even last month now that I think of it.

So yeah, enjoy! I'll hopefully update soon.

 

Harry and I haven't been sleeping in the same bed after the whole dinner situation.

I haven't told him why, but he knows that something is up.

He and I haven't really beeen stargazing either.

Right now, I'm cooking breakfast for us, my hips moving to the beat of 'Message Man' by twenty One Pilots while I also attempted to rap along.

"Guess who?" A low voice said in my ear as hands placed themselves at my now still hips.

Starttled, I jumped, causing me to bump my arm on the hot pan. The pan of popping bacon would have fallen on me if it weren't for Harry's quick hand grabbing it.

"Get the fuck off of me!" I exclaimed, pushing his other arm off of me and taking a few steps away from him to put some distance between us.

For a moment, Harry was quiet and took time to turn the stove off, which I hadn't done, too eager to get away from Harry's grasp.

"Why did you jump away?" Harry asked, head tilted to one side in complete confusion.

"Friends shouldn't be so close to each other." I looked down at the floor.

"Is that what all of this is about? Lou, that was weeks ago!" Harry's voice rose andd I didn't bother looking at his face to know that there was hurt written all over it.

All of a sudden, I was very much aware of a hot burning pain in the region of my arm that had hit the pan. I hissed and immediately placed my hand over top of the wound to cradle my arm to me."Lou, come here, let me see it." He held an arm out.

I shook my head, "I can take care of it." This time, I lookeed up.

The curly haired man across from me pursed his lips and squinted his eyes at me in a glare.

I ignored him and began to turn my back to walk away. Harry, however, wasn't taking it and surprised me yet again by roughly grabbing my arm.

"Harry stop this!" I yelled and tried twisting out of his grip.

Ignoring me, Harry proceeded to drag me to the bathroom, tightening his grip on my arm again.

"Harry Edward Styles! This is not okay!" I seethed when Harrry pushed me to sit on the closed toilet seat. He glared at me, daring me to get up, which I did.

Growling, he pushed me to sit back down, this time, I didn't get up again, figuring that Harry was too pissed off to rationallize. Without speaking, Harry got the first aid kit from out of the cabinet. He placed a few objects from out of the box onto the counter.

"Stand up," he demanded, which I did shakily. Harry turned on the faucet then grabbed the wrist of my hurt arm and twisted gently it so my palm was facing upwards.

A hiss left my mouth when the warm water made contact with my wound. After about a minute, Harry turned off the water and applied an ointment to the burn on my forearm with a q-tip. Soon after, a band-aid was placed on it just as both our phones began to ring.

"I've got it," Harry's words were underlayed with a silent order for me to not go for my phone. He answered his phone. "Hey Simon... Yeah okay, we'll be there in forty minutes or so. Louis still needs to eat." Harry hung up. "We have a case. How about you go eat breakfast." His voice was gentle now.

"No, you eat it, I'm not hungry anymore, you eat it," I shook my head and got up.

***

Harry didn't eat the breakfast.

***

"What's the case Simon?" Harry asked stiffly.

"It's an interesting one... A woman came in screaming and hollering that her husband was murdered and kidnapped. Exactly in that order. She wants us to find him no matter what. That's exactly what I want you two to do." Simon ordered, handing me the usual manilla folder.

"Yes Sir," Harry nodded.

I decided to nod absenstmindedly and skim through the papers.

"Were you listening at all Tomlinson?" Simon snapped.

"Yes Sir, I was. Harry and I will go to the crime scene to see why exactly she'd think that her husband was killed." I confirmedd, closing the file.

Nodding in approval, Simon waved his hand, "good, now go."

Without another word, Harry and I hurried out of the office.

Before going downstairs, Harry grabbed me by the bicep to stop me from continuing. "How should we go about doing this one?"

I didn't even turn to look at him, "check out the crime scene while it's fresh. See any evidence they have so far. Do background checks on the husband and wife. Interrogate the wife. We go from there and solve this freaking thing so we can go visit Ed somewhat soon. And you can get the Hell off of me." I pulled my arm back.

When I turned around Harry pursed his lips and nodded, sensing my level of pissed-off-ness.

(P.o.v. change)

Mary White.

The name I gave to myself.

John White.

The name my husband gave to himself.

I wouldn't have gone to police if I didn't think that we needed it... think that (I) needed it. I know that I'm risking our true identities being blown. Right now, with my spouse's life at stake, it's something that I had to risk.

Nervous that they've found out already, I checked my wrist watch. It's a men's watch, but I decided to keep it as a reminder of who I really am... well was I guess.

The time read 11:08 A.M.

I've been sitting in this room for three and a half freaking hours!

When is someone going to fucking-

The door opened and two officers stepped in.

One is tall, quite fit with dark curly hair and green eyes.

The other was short, a bit less fit, brown hair, blue eyes, and royally pissed off, like majorly. However, there was an underlying shock and almost fear behind what he was letting show.

From the display of emotion from the second one, I looked back at the first officer only to find a face void of any emotion whatsoever.

The shorter sat down first, a manilla folder in his loose grip. The taller sat down after.

Emotions are something you need to read well when you're someone like me; need to know who to trust and who not to.

I think that I can trust these two for what I need to have done.

With my hands clasped and my arms propped upon the table and rested chin in my hands, I stared at the pair.

"I'm Louis Tomlinsin with NYPD." The smaller man spoke.

"I'm Harry Styles with FBI." The taller man spoke.

"I'm Mary White," I replied without thinking. Something I'd usually hesitate and slip up with, saying my former name instead.

Louis exchanged a quick skeptic loook with Harry.

"Well Mary, you lied to us. We went to your home and saw the blood on the bed. It wasn't nearly enough for him to have died from it. Did you actually see your husband's dead body?" Harry immediately asked.

"Well no. But if you've seen what I've seen, blood usually means death." I explained truthfully, leaning back in my uncomfortable chair and crossing my arms. Besides, if the person who took him is who I think it is, then John is as good as dead.

Tears began to fill my eyes at the thought, but I held eye contact and blinked back the salty liquid.

"John was stabbed in the back so hard that the bone was pierced. There were bone fragments on the bed. His attacker probably paralyzed him purposely," Harry spoke.

Louis flashed Harry a glare at the word 'paralyzed'. Harry didn't seem to catch the look so I pretended it didn't happen.

"Why would someone do that to him!?" I yelled, "John would never hurt anyone for no reason! Why would they do this to him!? Why not just kill him instead!?" In distress, I planted a firm hand in my hair, feeling one of my formed tears already gliding down my cheek. I don't deal well with knowing that my spouse is in pain and suffering.

"Maybe the (attacker) wasn't able to physically overpower him, so the (attacker) had to injure him so he wouldn't run away or fight back." Each time Louis the word 'attacker' he was sure to say it with an accusatory sort of tone.

"What are you trying to say?" I felt the ice cold fear set in and hold my very being in a vice-like grip.

"The attacker was either small, out of shape, injured, or female. A man would have killed him right then and there, like you've already stated, or something of the sort. So right now, as you really don't have an alibi, you're the prime suspect until you can come up with a name." Louis stated, sitting back in his seat, signaling his withdrawl from the conversation.

I shook my head, looking at the wall to my right. If I wanted to see my husband again, I knew that I had to say something, come up with a story and quick.

John and I came up with a back story for us... the thing is, it'd sure be helpful if he were here instead of me because I just can't remember it right now.

... He ... was smart and good at remembering things like this.

The silence in the room was thick and it choked me causing sweat to begin its secretion from my glands in copious amounts.

That was when Harry spoke up in his low voice and slow yet somehow steady words. "What do you exactly remember about your room when you woke up this morning?" Was his question.

I shook my head, "the blood puddle and a cold empty bed."

"That can't be all, close your eyes and really think about it. Look at everything just as you remember it."

I did as he asked, ignoring the bloodied bed sheets this time. Nothing was out of order on our dressers. I looked at my nightstand and saw my glass of water there, it was slightly cloudier than regular water.

On my husband's nightstand, it was empty. Not even his phone was there. Now that I think of it... I haven't seen my phone since last night either.

On the back of my neck, there was a gust of air.

I turned suddenly, knowing that there was a window there. Sure enough, it was open, just like it was any other day.

I opened my eyes.

"The window was open... The water on my nightstand had something in it... And our phones are missing," I stated everything before I forgot, just like I forgot John and I's cover story.

"Was there any blood on the window sill?" Harry asked.

I shook my head, "spotless."

"Okay. Since there was only blood on the bed, then the kidnapper probably patched up your husband. They want him alive, which is good for all of us. As for the water, a high concentration of crushed sleeping pills were found in it. Your saliva was also in the water so you drank from it right?"

Slowly trying to remember, I regaurdless nodded my head. I mean if my saliva is inside the glass, I'm sure that I must have drank from it.

"When did you drink it?"

I hummed in thought. "I was tired and it was dark... We don't have a clock in our room, so I reached for my phone to see the time but it wasn't there... I didn't give it much thought since I was so tired and thirsty..." I trailed off, "so I definitely drank it during the night."

"Really think about this one, was the window open then?"

I faintly remembered the cool breeze on my face and I nodded.

"Okay. Did you have the window open when you went to bed?"

Vehemently, I shook my head. "No. Never. We're on the first floor in our apartment and I never wanted something like this to happen."

Harry slowly nodded, "the kidnapper was probably in your room before that. They were waiting for you to drink the water."

"Well then, I'd say that's alibi enough for me, right Officer Tomlinson?" I said completely out of spite.

Louis looked briefly at me and shrugged, "there's still more that we'd like to ask."

I snorted at the 'we' part since he's literally asked zero questions and has only made empty accusations.

Harry looked at Louis who was looking down at his lap and continuously flipped through papers in the folder that he was holding. However, when Harry realized that Louis wasn't looking up anytime soon, he looked at me apologetically.

"Well Mrs. White... when we ran your DNA through the database, it matched a guy's DNA, Randal White who has been missing for fifteen years. We thought that he could've just been a twin, but your hospital records show that your mother gave birth to only one son. Same goes for your husband only vise versa with the genders. Care to explain?" Harry asked.

Shit. Shit! SHIT!

We are so caught!

The government is going to kill us and run tests on our dead bodies!

I mean what the Hell do you say to someone when they're so close to finding out your secret, the one secret that you've been trying to hide for a full fifteen years.

"Louis and I connected the dots and now we know what you and your spouse are." Harry said slowly.

I waited for him to say the two words; Gender Bender. However, those two words never came, which is great because I hate that term.

"My spouse and I moreso prefer the term Narural Transsexuals..." I trailed off.

Curly hair flopped as he nodded his understanding, "you can talk openly with Louis and I about it. We are somewhat hunters, this is a part of our lives."

"Well, John and I met by choice... I've been this way ever since one fateful drinking night when I was seventeen. A Gender Bender must've somehow slipped some of their own DNA into my drink. The next morning I woke up, I was a woman." I chuckled half-heartedly. "My parents were hunters, so I knew what I needed to do. So, I met John, not knowing that he himself was a Natural Transsexual like me."

Louis looked up in confusion. I noticed it this time and acknowledged it as well, "there are two ways to be converted back to the original gender. Way one is to kill the original Gender Bender, the one who passed the DNA. The other way is to shack up with someone of the opposite sex, the gender you originally were... option two doesn't really work between two Gender Benders..."

"When did you find out about John?" Harry asked quietly.

I shakily sighed and leaned far back in my chair, facing the ceiling as I covered my face with my hands. "Our wedding night... we were both so disappointed." A lump formed in my throat as I revisited the memory. "That's when we promised to fullfill the first option for both of us."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, voice full of sympathy, the first emotion that I've seen him genuinely display. "Were you close to finding him or her?"

"Her, and yes. The same Gender Bender turned John and I, so we only had one person to hunt. We were so close and now... she might've picked up on our trail and found us first..."

"We will find your husband ma'am, but we can't assume that you'll get your normal life back... we can't kill people, especially when it's pertaining to a case." Louis honestly spoke up.

I looked him straight in the eyes, angered by his implications, "do you know how it feels like to not even feel like yourself in your own skin for fifteen God damn years!? Let me tell you, it is (not) fun. Same for Jonn! How do I know he fell in love with me and not this persona that was forced on me!? How do I know if I will even honestly love John after we're back to normal!? That's something that has been taken away from me, my identity, and I fucking want it back!" I slammed my fist on the table.

Tomlinson jumped slightly at the unexpected action. Harry, on the other hand, glared at me in disappointment.

"You need to keep calm. We're trying to help you without losing our jobs. Talking to you without video recording was Louis' decision. He was the one who didn't want you being blamed for something you're innocent for, nor for you or your spouse's covers to be blown."

"Thank you Mr. Tomlinson," I mumbled.

Louis nodded and looked back down at his lap, Louis was thinking, I could tell.

"Are there any places you think she'd be?" Harry asked.

I thought long and hard, "I have a few..."

***

After one and a half hours of talking to two, probably gay, police officers in an interrogation room, with no evidence to show for it, I was done.

It shouldn't have nearly been enough time for them to gain my trust and certainty, especially not for just a bunch of words that ultimately mean nothing.

And yet, they're now amongst the only three people who know about John and I being Natural Transsexuals. The other one person is whoever made us this way to begin with.

I haven't even told my own parents.

Right now, John is in an operating room for his back.

"Mrs. White, you can see your husband John White now. He's still sore, so I suggest you be very careful around him. That stabbing caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down, so definitely don't expect him to move anytime soon." A nurse came into the waiting room.

With my own guidance, I made it to my husband's room. When I did, I froze, confused to find a woman lying there, her eyes closed and sheet up to her shoulders.

She was asleep and for a moment I thought I had the wrong room, however, when I read the bed label, I saw the name 'John White' written.

With wide eyes, I rushed to the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror, I was me again.

I cried.

***

(Louis' p.o.v.)

Fortunately for me, Harry has Zayn's phone number.

Just earlier he called Zayn, asking if he could off this woman that took away Mary and John White's identities.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in the area, but Paul was, so... Paul took care of it... of her.

"I can't believe I allowed that to happen to a person who doesn't even deserve it," I mumbled, gazing out the window of my car. "She lawfully didn't do anything wrong, Harry."

Harry sighed, "I know, Lou, but it was the right thing to do."

"I hope that you're right," I whispered. Though it was directed at Harry, it was moreso for me to hear.

"So, you ready for a six hour drive?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

I attempted at a smile, "I guess I sort of am."

***

"Come on Harry, I want to talk about us... I want to know that we're okay," I urged as we sat on Ed's couch.

Harry threw me a half smile, "but we are fine, Lou. There's nothing to talk about."

That was when Ed walked in and I pursed my lips, deciding not to make a scene. So, I simply got up and stormed off to the bathroom.

When I locked myself in, I simply sat on the rug with my knees drawn up to my chest and my head in my arms.

There was a knock on the door and I decided not to answer, waiting for them to identify themself.

I half wished that it was Harry.

I half wished that it was Ed.

Both for different reasons.

"Louis come on, open the door, this is my home." I heard Ed' familiar voice.

Sighing, I opened the door, deciding that it was only fair.

"Come on Lou, lets go out for a drink so we can talk. How does that sound?"

"I don't know Ed..." I trailled off.

"You know I was afraid you were going to say that, So how about this, you and I need some us time. Harry needs some think time. It's something that needs to happen. Klarise and I sometimes need time apart to help resolve our fighting." Ed stated, taking my wrist in his hand and gently tugging me out of the bathroom.

I allowed him to take me out to one of his 'favorite' bars.

The bar we'd go to in the city was supposed to be his favorite, but I guess that changed now, just like everything else is changing.

***

"He said that we're just friends," I murmered.

"Then that's all it is and you should expand your borders and look for other people." Ed shrugged, "if that's all you are to him, then can't change how he sees you."

The bar tender placed a drink in front of me.

"Um sorry sir, but I didn't order this."

Bartender, whom was quite attractive, shook his head, flashing me a smile. "It's on the house, don't worry about it."

I didn't even think twice before downing the whole thing, even if it did burn my throat.

 

Questions?


	11. Part Two: The Foreshadowing Reveals Itself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey guys I am back!
> 
> I'll make this AN short, but basically this will be a double update because:
> 
> 1: This chapter may not be suitable for all you people out there because there's sort of M/F smut, but it's short and doesn't make the whole chapter. But it is still weird. Tell me if you want me to give you a sumary of this chapter if you don't want to read it I'd totally understand.
> 
> 2: I haven't updated in literally months!! I am so sorry for that and you all deserve an explaination, which I will give if you ask.
> 
> Anyways, my birthday passed last month, so I am 17 now.
> 
> There will be a QoTD in the next chapter.
> 
> Enjoy!

When I woke up, my chest was heavy, like literally a couple pounds or so heavier. Gasping, I sat up and was confused at the slight bounce in my chest.

At the moment, a head ache instantly erupted in my brain and I immediately brought my hand to tangle in my hair.

I was confused even further to find my hair was longer than usual, falling into my face and down to my midback.

With furrowed brows, I glanced at my forearm to find my band-aid just barely sticking to the skin there.

Trying desprately to keep calm, I exhaled shakily and removed the band-aid from my arm to find skin there, no burn, no redness, not even a scar.

"Harry!" I called out nervously, voice shakng as I called him. This voice was not my own.

There was complete silence, no heavy footsteps or anything.

"HARRY!" I called out even louder, letting my fear unintentionally show.

This time, hurried footsteps made their way to the room Harry and I were supposed to be staying in together.

The door opened revealing a very frantic Harry. The moment his eyes landed on me, they widened and he quietly cursed.

"Shit... Lou are you okay?"

"My chest is heavy, I have a head ache, my hair grew like a foot, and my burn is gone! Harry, how long was I sleep?" My high-pitched voivce cracked like crazy and I felt like a teenager all over again. "W-What's happening to me?" My eyed welled up with tears.

Clearing his throat, Harry's eyes shifted from my chest to my eyes. "Well, do you remember what happened last night?" He regarded me carefully.

I shook my head, not even attempting an effort to regain the lost memories of the previous night.

"You were absolutely smashed last night when you came back from drinking with Ed. I was pissed off, Ed didn't know what to do because you weren't responding to him and he thought you were high since you were acccepting drinks from strangers that could've been spiked or something. So, I just let you sleep it off."

I slowly nodded again, noticing how Harry would avoid my eyes staring at my chest instead. "Would you quit staring at me!"

Harry's eyes snapped to my eyes, "sorry Lou, I just... have you looked in the mirror this morning?"

Again, I hesitanly shook my head and held my hand out for him to take, which he did, and helped me up.

On wobbly legs, I was led to the full body mirror, which was in the very same room as us, and I immediately yelled when I saw what was staring back at me.

By no means was this person me.

The hair of this person was quite long and a light brown, going to about mid back, right where I felt something light tickling at my back.

The person's tomach was flat, smooth, unlike my own, however, even still, I felt the lack of weight in the same area.

Where my usual flat chest should have been, there was a small pair of developing breasts.

Lastly, instead of there being a flaccid penis and a pair of balls, a vagina took their place.

I looked at the person's legs, frightened to see they were perfect, smooth, slightly muscular, no scars.

There were no scars anywhere.

This person in the mirror was new.

This person in the mirror that moved when I moved, breathed when I breathed, and had my eyes is not me.  
"I-it's- THAT is n-not me," I stuttered.

"Sweetheart, for now it is. This is you."

"No it isn't," I whimpered, eyes tearing up as the person's eyes in the mirror teared up. "It is NOT! I AM a guy!"

Harry shushed me and turned me so that I was facing him. "Yes you are, but just not right now."

This has to be a joke, after how hard I've worked to become a proud gay individual, something like this has to happen to me.

Life was laughing at me in my face.

It's not fair.

Harry's calming hand rubbed my back as he pulled my body into his arms. His low whispery voice was what finally caused for my panic to ebb away.

"You know the only way we can turn you back right?" Harry asked quietly.

I nodded, feeling the silent fear building in me.

"So do you want to get it over with?" Expecting me to say yes, he began to pepper small kisses at my neck.

"Hell no!" I yelled, pushing him away. "We're just friends remember?" I spat back.

"Guys please try to be quieter," Ed's raspy voice spoke suddenly and I widened my eyes to see a sleepy Ed with his eyes just barely cracked. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes.

"Ed, Louis and I have an issue to sort out," Harry spoke slowly, assessing the situation.

Seeming to realize something was off, Ed opened his eyes all the way. "Louis!? Where is he? And who the Hell is she!? Louis better be sleeping still, oh God he is going to kill both of you. Where is he? He's not in the bed, oh God! He already saw you two didn't he?!" Ed placed a hand over his face in frusteration.

Not knowing what to do, I looked between Ed and Harry and decided to bury my hands in my hair, tugging at the roots of the long strands.

"Both of you, out, stay by the door though, I don't want you scaring Klarise and I need to get dressed." I decided to speak up, hoping that I'd be able to regain the rest of my cool in the time that I've bought myself.

"But only Louis' clothes are in here, you can't wear those!" Ed exclaimed, looking just about ready to pounce on me and not in the good way either.

Harry shook his head, "just listen to him... her I mean, we need to talk to you, but you need to just trust us right now."

Rolling his eyes, Ed stepped outside nevertheless, then stepped aside to make sure Harry stepped out as well, which he did, then Harry closed the door behind him.

Shaking my head, I first turned the mirror around, not wanting to see the ugly reflection. Hair fell in my face from the simple task, so I flipped my hair over one shoulder, something that I see women do often.

Kneeling down, I went through my suitcase trying to find something that'd fit this new body.

I settled for an oversized shirt so that it wasn't too tight around my chest area, and a pair of pajama shorts that went just above my knees. Calming myself, I pressed my forehead against the closed door.

From the other side, I could hear Ed and Harry's murmered conversation.

"What the Hell do you mean that she's Louis?"

"You just need to trust me, just ask him a question when he comes out." Harry insisted.

"You mean her." Ed pointed out.  
"I said what I meant, Louis doesn't want to be referred to as a female, believe me." Harry answered. My heart swelled at Harry's truthful answer.

Ed only hummed.

That was when I decided to sheepishly open the door and take a step outside the doorway.

"Name three songs on my album that I didn't release to the public," Ed immediately demanded with crossef arms.

Shaking my head, I answered, "I've only heard Little Bird on the radio so far, so I couldn't answer."

"A Team and Lego House are the other two, answer my question," Ed demanded of me once again.

"Let It Out, Firefly, and Loose Change," I answered assuredly, yet still looked down at my fidgety hands, afraid that he wouldn't see the truth in my words.

"How did Simon find out you were gay?" Ed fired back, eyes narrowing.

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks, "well you and I were in my office talking and you asked me why I was gay and I said that dicks just seem more appealing than tits. I didn't know that Simon was standing in the doorway listening in." I felt that even the tips of my ears were warm by the time I finished my story.

The corner of Ed's mouth twitched the tiniest bit as he recalled the memory, "on our very first case together, what did you go undercover as, what did you wear, and what did you keep?"

"Well... I went undercover as a woman, which doesn't even seem funny right now. I wore Stacy's lip gloss, high heels, mascara, a mini skirt, a blouse, and... lace panties, which is the only thing that I kept." The last part was a mumbled confession.

Light blue eyes lit up in happiness before saddening, "Lou, what the Hell happened to you?"

I nearly passed out from the relief that instsntly flooded my system.

"That's what we need to talk about," Harry said, a level of seriousness behind his eyes. "How about we talk this over in the kitchen or something."

"How about my man cave instead?" Ed suggested.

I nodded, feeling my face lose its previously gained color at the thought of the upcoming conversation.

When we were in the basement (Ed's man cave) I took a seat in Ed's much loved plush recliner chair after both Ed and Harry had insisted. My eyes traveled over to Harry, whom was sitting in a bean bag chair (where I initailly wanted (and still want) to sit).

Harry caught my drift and began the conversation. "So Ed, are you able to believe in something that you may never be able to see?"

"And what do you mean by that?" Ed raised an eyebrow.

"If something seems 'unnatural', do you think it's real, or would you try to convince yourself otherwise?" Harry rephrased the question.

"It depends on what it is," Ed said, not caring to elaborate.

"Monsters, demons, witches, angels, vampires, werewolves, wendigos, what word comes to mind?" Harry asked.

"Unnatural now that you've ingrained the word in my mind," Ed answered as if it was obvious.

"Sure, but you still used the same word to describe them instead of something like mythical. That's because they just seem unreal and silly to believe in, but that's just the thing. They're all naturally occuring creatures that've been around longer than you humans," Harry explained.

"It'd be like saying you don't believe in birds because we don't truly know their origin since we weren't there when they were created or whatever," I pitched in.

Ed shook his head, disbelief written on his face, "so basically the boogie man is real and all that?"

"How else would you explain Louis' situation right now?"

"Okay, so you want me to believe that werewolves have nothing better to do than turn men into women." Ed raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"Well actually a Gender Bender did that, but yes. They like to screw around with people. Some of them even believe that if they change a certain amount of people, then they'll return to their original gender, which hasn't been proven yet." Harry answered truthfully.

"Then what will turn him back?" Ed asked suddenly, looking at me and catching me off guard.

I looked down, "that's not important right now, but it does mean that Harry and I need to leave early."

"Did you pull him into all of this?" Ed asked Harry quietly.

"Yes, and I take full responsibility for-"

A loud resounding smack echoed throughout the room and I widened my eyes, realizing that Ed had slapped Harry.

"Ed!" I got up.

Ed sat right back down, "you need to watch him closer then! If you knew that something bad like this could have happened, then you should've called us the moment you realized we were out. I didn't know he needed to be watched over like that!" Guilt thickly filled Ed's voice.

"Ed, that was all me. I was the irresponsible one here, not you," I mumbled.

The red haired man shook his head, "I shouldn't have let you accept those strangers' drinks even still. Anyhow Styles, if you two are going to continue with doing whatever you do, you had better protect Louis. You seem to better understand all this stuff."

"Trust me, I will, but Louis does know how to hold his own from time to time," Harry snuck a glance at me, not even seeming to be remotely in pain from the forming handprint on his cheek.

"Well, on a lighter note," Ed chuckled. "I did always say that you'd make a pretty girl, Lou. William and Klarise are going to wake up soon. What do you two want to do?"

I looked at Harry, he's way better at problem solving than I am.

"We'll be going back home, unfortunately." Harry stood up, "there's not much to pack since we just got here. Tell Klarise and William bye for us."

The read head wrapped his arms awkwardly around me in a sort of hug, though it wasn't as tight as I would have liked because of my potruding chest. "Bye Lou, be good kiddo."

"We'll see what happens. Tell William that I'm so sorry we couldn't stay any longer and I love and miss him." I said, guilt filling my voice when I realized that I couldn't even give him a proper good bye and it was all because of my stupid mistake.

***

For a straight three hours of the drive, I stared straight ahead out the windshield.

That lasted a long while until I noticed that I was very much hungry.

My stomach grumbled to get its point across. I cleared my throat.

Interested in my next move, Harry turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow since we were stopped at a red light, "you good?"

"M'hungry," my voice fucking cracked from that one stupid word.

Ugh I hate my voice right now! It's so soft and high-pitched and annoying becuase it's not my voice, yet here it is coming out of my mouth.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Harry turned to look out the windshield and began driving again.

"I don't know, stop at a drive through or something." I purposely lowering my voice an octave.

When we stopped at McDonalds, I let Harry order for me as I had no desire to speak anymore than necessary. So, I ended up with some big burger, an order of large french fries, and a caramel sundae for good measure, though looking at all the food, I knew that I wasn't going to finish it.

It was quiet again as I ate my food. Harry snuck a fry here and there, which was fine as I wasn't even able to finish my burger with this new body.

Sighing, I wrapped the rest of the burger in its paper and put it back into the greasy paper bag that held the rest of the order.

Harry looked over at me eventually as if just then remembering that I was in the car as well.

"How are you holding up?" He questioned.

I shrugged.

"Come on Lou, talk to me." Harry sounded almost desperate to get a straight answer from me

"It's not really me talking. My words, sure, but not my voice in the slightest." I mumbled.

Harry hummed. "For right now, it is you. Soon, we'll get you back to your original body. I'll take care of it okay?" I knew what he meant and I don't want to do that.

"But how Harry!? I don't want to have sex with you while I'm like this! It's not me having sex with you, it's you fucking some woman that you'll never see again!"

Harry stared straight ahead, quietly thinking, "is all this becausse of what I said to Alice about us?"

It was quiet, choosing not to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

"You do know that I was lying right? I didn't tell her because first off we haven't really talked about telling anyone, and secondly I don't even know what I'd tell her. I mean, we were friends and stilll are right? We haven't really put any other labels on our relationship."

I scoffed, "well, you're the one who won't let me put a label on us. I mean, I'd at least say that we're lovers or something."

Harry didn't answer for awhile before quietly saying, "but we aren't because I don't love you."

My broken heart shattered even further and I regret ever telling him my feelings on that one night back then.

It took me a whole hour for me to repsond, thinking of all the words in my vocabulary to describe something that I don't even have the words for. The whole time, I watched the minutes change and by the time it hit 2:47 p.m. , I had a sentence that'd describe everthing that I had been contemplating.

"We have a weird relationship."

"Yes, yes we do," Harry nodded. "Is that okay with you?"

I thought for a moment, surprised that he had asked.

"Yeah," I answered truthfully.

"Then that's okay."

And that was that.

***

When we got to our lake house, Harry helped me with unpacking and after awhile, I just sat on the edge of our bed, accepting the enormity of or situation.

Harry noticed the nervousy written all over my features, "you still good?"

"C-can you... can we just get this over with?" I stuttered over my words as I referred to us doing certain things.

Harry looked me over, "are you sure?"

I only nodded and spread my legs slightly as an invintation.

Testing the waters, Harry placed his hands at my knees to spread them further so he could stand between them.

"This okay?" He asked, leaning his face close to mine and parting his lips to breathe.

I shuttered yet nodded, focused on looking in Harry's eyes as we breathed eachother's air.

To calm my nerves, Harry pressed his mouth against mine and our lips moved sensually together, tongue occasionally rubbing against each others.

Suddenly remembering something, I broke away from Harry, a thin trail of saliva connecting us still.

Saliva.

"Harry, won't you turn now too?" I whispered as ice cold fear filled me.

Harry kissed just below my ear before murmuring his husky words, "won't affect me." His fingers teased the skin of my waist from where my shirt had begun to ride up for whatever reason.

As his fingers continued slowly up my sides, I placed my hands over his wrists to stop him.

"I'm... I'm not comfortable with you touching my chest area..." I trailed off, communnicating my thoughts across.

Nodding, Harry left a single peck at the underide of my jaw to let me know that he understood.

"Is it okay if I take your shirt off at all?" Harry asked.

I blinked at the question, not really expecting it at all. Since it was up to me, I shook my head, my hair flipping all over, something I definitely wasn't used to.

"What about your shorts?" Harry tried, fixing my hair so that it was no longer in my face but behind my ears instead.

Ugh. I'm never growing my hair out this long.

Ever.

Honestly, I shrugged as a reply, unsure of what else I should answer. If it were up to me, we would not be doing this at all as Harry and I aren't exactly on the best terms.

"What would you do if I said yes?" I decided to ask.

Harry chuckled, "I'd take them off."

"Well duh, but what would you do after that?"

With a twinkle in his eyes, he kept his smile on his face even as he answered. "Nothing major, just a little something to get you used to this different body."

Biting my lip, I decided to believe him and nodded my consent.

I kept my eyes closed so I didn't have to watch Harry as he undid my shorts. Unfortunately, boxers hadn't been cutting it, so I decided that going commando was probably best. The moment my shorts were on the floor, Harry was immediately met with the sight of my very... different... parts.

It's a good thing I decided to keep my eyes closed.

I inhaled sharply through my nose when I felt Harry's warm breath so close to the parts doen there.

"H-Harry, hurry up please," I quietly urged, not wanting to be in this position for any longer than necessary.

"Sorry Lou, it's been awhile," he said lowly.

God I wanted to answer him back but I just couldn't because when he talked I could /feel/ it and it added a layer of nervousness to my already present anxiety.

"But I think..." He intentionally didn't finish his sentence as I felt the familiar expanse of his tongue hot and wet against a nub and I gasped, throwing back my head. Deciding to tease me, Harry pulled away, "...that's your clit."

"Not mine ah-!" I broke off in a high-pitched whine when Harry chose to ignore me and stiffened his tongue to massage circles into the foriegn part.

Without any warning, Harry sucked the nub into his mouth, cheeks hollowing from the intense force of it.

An unexpected yell left my lips, "Harry! D-don't stop!" I inadvertantly placed my hand in his hair to try and push him closer to me, which he allowed.

Catching me off guard, Harry entered a slightly moist middle finger slowly into my newly clenching passage.

I scrunched my eyebrows at the pain that came with it. Having been through a similar pain before, I was somewhat able to block it out. Harry's tongue may or may not have also helped along with the process.

At the same time Harry's tongue began tracing firm circles into... my clit, his finger angled just the right way on one of his mini-thrusts.

Unvoluntarily, I bucked my hips once, a small cry leaving my mouth. "H-Harry! N-No- Pl-please m'gonna- AH!"

My thighs tightened around Harry's head while my stomach spasmed from an intense orgasm as Harry quickly added a second finger, both scisssoring roughly against that special spot.

It was a knee jerk reaction, me tightening my fingers in Harry's hair as Harry slowed his actions yet still keeping them up as my clit pulsated and my passage clenched and unclenched around Harry's large fingers.

After about a minute of this, Harry pulled away when he knew I was through me high. Nonetheless, I still whimpered when he pulled away (and out) completely, I opened my eyes for the first time during this whole experience. My eyelashes were spiked with wetness and my sight was blurry.

From inside my chest, my heart was racing and I'm sure my face was red as well as my neck.

Once I gained better control over my breathing, I pulled my hand from out of Harry's hair.

"You good?" Harry asked, looking up at me from where he was crouching. I ignored the blood that he wiped from his fingers onto the bedsheets.

"Y-yeah," I nodded shakily.

Green eyes met mine as he stood up to look me in the eyes, "damn Lou, made you cry." A thumb wiped away the remenants of the salty liquid.

I shrugged, suddenly coquettish, "it felt good."

"And that's perfectly fine," Harry assured me, pausing a moment to move a strand of hair from out of my face. "Was simply making an observation. Did it hurt when I put my fingers in you?"

"Somewhat, yeah, but it was okay after a little bit." I answered.

"Good," Harry let out a breath of relief. "What do you say to another orgasm with me in you this time? Think you're prepped enough?"

Slowly, I nodded, knowing it's the only way at this point that I can turn back to being a guy.

"Okay, you'll need to tell me when or if it's too much," Harry advised, pressing a quick kiss to my mouth.

"I will," I nodded.

"Still want the shirt on?" Harry asked.

I only nodded in response. First of all, I was afraid of freaking out Harry, secondly, I was afraid of freaking myself out, and thirdly, I didn't want my different chest to be a complete turn off for Harry.

That would not be good.

"Okay, I'm taking my pants off now," Harry said as he began to unbutton and unzip his pants.

I intently watched as Harry removed his pants with his boxers.

Soon after came his shirt.

"How about you move further up the bed against the pillows." Harry suggested, "won't be very comfortable otherwise."

Flustered, I scooted up the bed. Harry followed me as his large hands cupped my head to bring my mouth closer to the man's of whom was hovering above me.

He took my vulnerable moment to press his body closer to me, hips slotting against my own.

I gasped out of surprise from the sudden contact and immediately my thighs closed around Harry's hips.

"It's okay Louis, I haven't done anything yet."

Inhaling through my nose, then shutter-y exhaling out my mouth, I shook my head, "I don't- I don't... I can't with this body, Harry."

"That's okay Lou, I'll go slow," Harry assured me.

/Slow./

All I could picture was the pain that came with Harry's pounding into my arse searching for his release, not caring at all about my pain.

That wasn't a good experience for my first time, even if I have forgiven him for it.

"Lou, it's okay," Harry assured me, cupping my face with his hands.

"No," I whimpered, placing my hands onto his wrists, pushing them away. "I can't do this after last time."

Harry looked down guiltily.

I bit my lip, "can we- can we wait then? Just a bit of time? We took enough time off remember? And now we have nowhere else to be." I said softly.

Instead of speaking, Harry simply nodded and pecked my forehead.

Let's just say that it's been a very interesting couple of days.

Harry has only gone out the house once whereas I haven't been out at all.

Peeing is very weird, being a female, can't do it standing up. Thanks to all the sisters I had, I knew somewhat how to take care of myself.

Not once have I initiated anything, neither did Harry, so I decided to not bring up the topic of... changing me back, though I know that Harry has been wanting to.

"I bought you something," Harry said hesitantly as we sat on our couch watching the most recent season of The Walking Dead.

I waited for him to continue, not wanting to miss a nanosecond of my favorite show.

"It's to help with the whole... situation." Harry continued. I paused the t.v. and turned to look at Harry whom had my full attention now after I paused the t.v.

"So what is it?" I spoke lower on purpose.

"Well... you know we have work tomorrow, so I bought a sex toy that'll get you used to having something in you. I mean, you don't need to use it, but I think it'll help because we need to do this tonight."

"What is it?" I repeated curiously.

"It's a vibrating dildo," Harry said bluntly. "You don't need to use the vibrating part, but it'll probably help some. I don't even need to help you, I mean I will if you want-"

"I do want your help," I blurted out, not knowing this new body at all. After all, I did fail health class... twice.

"I was sort of hoping you'd say that." Harry smirked.

***  
"Ngh, Harry, I-I'm ready," I hoarsley groaned two orgasms later.

My long hair was starting to genuinely annoy me because it's matted to my face with sweat and it just gets everywhere.

The rest of my body was red and sticky with perspiration and from down there my clit was swollen and I was very much wet.

"Good, I was about ready to shove into you reguardless," Harry confessed, planting a kiss to the hollow of my throat.

With a few strokes of his own cock, Harry lifted both of my legs over his shoulder and easily slid into my awaiting passage.

"Ah!" I yelled out, tipping my head back from the sheer pleasure laced with soreness.

Harry let out a loud moan then let out a low growl as he thrust out only to thrust right back in again, "damn Lou, can't believe how tight and wet you are even still."

A gasp left my throat from his language. "Har, d-don't talk l-like that."

"Why? Does it make you want to come on my cock?" Harry asked, voice low as he began to powerfully move his hips.

From this angle, he immediately pressed against that one special spot in me.

"F-fuck! Har what's th-that!?" My voise rose a couple octaves as I tightly fisted the sheets.

"G-spot," Harry said, close to my ear as his breaths became shorter.

Grabbing the head board behind me, Harry's body bent over me as he suddenly sped up the pace, brows furrowed in complete concentration.

Very loud whines, whimpers, and cries from me filed the room, intermingling with Harry's low moans and grunts.

"So good," Harry moaned raspily above me.

All that came out my mouth were hight pitched 'ah's' in response. In the very pit of my stmach, I felt the heat and pleasure build there in a coil.

I whimpered as all my muscles tensed and I went to clenching the head board to Harry's shoulders instead.

"You're close babe, I know you are," Harry said, his eyes now closed.

Literal tears sprang from the corners of my eyes on a particularly hard thrust because Harry's cock had just jabbed powerfully at my g-spot once again.

"You're doing so well Lou," Harry breathily reassured me.

Catching me off guard, Harry's hand snuck beneathe my shirt to harshly pinch at a nipple.

That was what caused me to sob out while waves of pleasure crashed over me as my climax hit.

Harry followed with a loud yelp not too soon afterwards.

I clenched around him sporadically.

"What a relatioship we have," Harry whispered, catching his breath as he laid beside me.

I nodded blearily and replied just as out of breath as he was, "yeah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment if you made it to the end!


	12. Part Two: Two Months

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Not even sure if anyone is reading this, if you are then I thank you so much! I love you all!
> 
> QoTD: How have you been?
> 
> My Answer: Could be better, but enjoy this chapter and leave a comment because they brighten my day!
> 
> Enjoy!

An entire two months later, Ed had finally realize that he forgot to give Harry and I our wedding invitations.. a whole... Two... MONTHS! After the two months, I guess that Ed decided to finally remember his two bestest buddies in the entire universe.

As a result, this very morning, when I went to get the mail, I found two light blue envelopes with a return address written in sloppy handwriting that I knew to be all too familiar.

This was what caused me to excitedly run into Harry and I's house, though it was admittedly slightly more difficult due to my very slight weight gain. Very slight...

"Harry! Ed finally sent them!" I called out, running into the kitchen, where I knew he would be by this time in the morning. Or at least he better be there be now.

That was where I found Harry, as predicted, with a wrinkled nose as he stared at my breakfast, the usual ice-cream with bacon bits with a small slice of carrot cake. I really don't understand why Harry is making such a face, it's dessert for breakfast, who doesn't want that every once in a while?

Carrots have been incorperated into nearly all of my meals because they've just been that much more appealing as of late. Before, they were just another vegetable, but now... but NOW they seem oh so very appealing.

Green eyes looked up into mine in confusion from where he was sitting, "sent what?"

"The invites!" I exclaimed, guessing he was referrring to my earllier statement and I handed him the envalope that was addressed to him.

Even though I knew what was inside, I excitedly tore open the envelope and smiled that much wider when I started to read what was written inside.

'Louis, you have been invited to the wedding of Klarise Sted and Ed Sheeran!

You will be the best man and as a result, you are expected to be prepared with a speech that will be ready by the date of the wedding.

As for dress rehersals, you're expected to make all of them, the dates will be sent to you via word of mouth or call.

The details of the wedding are as follows:

Date: August 19, 2017

Time of Wedding Reception: 10:20 am

Time You Need to Arrive: 8:30 a.m.

Place: Riverview Barbeque in Seymour, Connecticut'.

"Oh my goodness, that's a whole year from now!" I exclaimed out of exasparation, "I can't wait that long Harry and so much can happen in a year! You could have a baby in that amount of time!"

Harry threw me a lopsided smile and shrugged, "calm down Lou, neither of us are miracuously getting pregnant any time soon. And besides, it takes awhile to plan a wedding to get everything finalized."

"True, especially when it comes to Ed." I said then added as an after thought, "Klarise too now that I think of it. I'm surprised that they even have a date picked out."

Harry chuckled, "fair point. Simon called me earlier, said we have a case by the way... I noticed you haven't really been sleeping well, so I sort of turned your phone off, in case you were wondering why you didn't get the call. Are you sure you're okay for a case today?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" My brow furrowed in confusion. I haven't given Harry the impression that I wasn't ready for a case.

Harry glanced down at my stomach for a moment before looking back at my face, "you... don't feel sick from your breakfast? You haven't really eaten anything..." Harry trailled off, eyes glancing back at my breakfast, which was turning to mush as the ice-cream melted into the cake.

I narrowed my eyes at him and retorted before he could finish his sentence, "I am saving the rest for breakfast tomorrow, thanks for your concern." I spat out and stomped off to Harry and I's room to change.

Harry followed after me, "you know that I didn't actually mean anything right? I don't know what you're thinking if you don't tell me."

"Trust me, that's a good thing." I pulled down my pajama bottoms and pulled up my fresh underwear and work pants, not even giving though to how it was a bit more difficult to button up. Crossing my arms across my pajama shirt, I turned to look at Harry, "now go away Harry. I need to finish changing."

"You haven't minded changing in front of me until now," Harry pointed out. "And besides, it's not like I haven't seen you naked before."

I glared at him in disblief whereas he just raised a challenging brow, mocking me by crossing his arms across his chest.

Shaking my head, I walked out of the bedroom, Harry followed close behind me.

"Fine then, I just won't change my shirt," I stomped off in the direction of the bathroom to at least apply deoderant and brush my teeth since we are already late.

This time I was smart enough to close and lock the door so Harry couldn't get in, but apparently not smart enough to bring a work shirt.

Though I should've brought a shirt, it's too late to grab one now because we're probably already late with getting to the PD.

***

With my head held high, I walked into the department with my head held high as Harry held in his chhuckles from beside me. I, however, ignored them all and continued up to Simon's office.

Simon raised his eyebrow as he looked up and down my outfit in great disapproval.

"So the case?" I asked, unfazed by his judging stare.

Simon snorted in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe that I was actually serious, which I was."Well first of all, you need to change out of that ridiculous shirt. Second of all, a neighbor reported her neighbors missing."

I frowned and both of his points, "like how many of them are missing?"

"Like a whole family of seven people." Simon stated, pushing the open file to the edge of his desk. It was facing towards me so I knew that he had wanted me to read the mess of papers inside, but his next sentence countered my thoughts.

"What's inside is unimportant, just where each family member was last seen before being at home yesterday evening. There's some other history and stuff on each of the members. So basically, a bunch of bull shit other than some crime scene stuff."

Nevertheless, I hummed as I shuffled through some of the papers and my eyes came across a picture that disturbed me, it was merely a picture of the family's living room. Blood stained the carpet in a small yet noticeable spot and I could tell that it wasn't an old stain. Other than the blood stain and a bat on the floor beside it, the rest of the room was untouched, seeming to be just another living room.

"Is the blood being tested?" I asked.

"Of course. We even have results, the blood was from the grandad. There was gun powder in the blood indicating he was shot." Simon said as if he was expecting the question, and yet it still seemed to annoy him.

"And the bat for particulates and prints?" I asked.

"Again, prints from the grandad and nothing else. What else do you think we've been doing for the past hour while waiting for you knuckleheads?" Simon rose an eyebrow, seeming the slightest bit pissed off now.

"Okay then, I'll text if any other questions come to me. If that's all that you needed to tell us, then I guess that Harry and I are going to leave." I turned to look at Harry whom nodded his confirmation.

Simon spoke no more, so we left.

***

Seraphine's teeth glinted from the usual fire that surrounded her face as she smirked, presumably, at me.

I blinked, attempting to turn around to see my surroundings, however fear immediately filled me when I realized that I couldn't move and it caused my temperature to drop as a knot began to form in the pit of my stomach.

"Don't look anywhere else, just at me." She snapped at me, even though I wasn't able to move and she knew that.

"What do you want?" I tried to sound menacing, but the knot formed in my stomach only allowed for a weak and trembling voice to leave my mouth.

"Oh only to kill you and your family. I thought that we established this already. Speaking of your family, I'd recommend that you find them before it's too late." Seraphine's loud laughter began to fill the dark space around us.

Abruptly, I awoke with her evil laugh echoing off the walls of my head and my entire body began to tremble in fear.

Harry looked over me from where he was driving, concern was apparent in his eyes, "are you okay?"

"Just a stupid nightmare about that bitch... she threatened my family." I mumbled, knowing that Harry would would instantly know who I was talking about.

He hummed, "it's probably just a bad dream. There's only one being who's able to project themselves into other people's dreams. your family will be okay for now Lou."

"I know that... but I still want to find them to make sure they really are okay." I insisted, my mind drifted to a few alternate possibilities of where they could actually be. None of those possibilities were good.

Harry though a moment, "you may not like what you find... I can't guarantee that they haven't ended up like Lottie by now..."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" I bristled and turned to look at him, wondering if he has been witholding such information from me.

"Kidnapped was all I meant," Harry assured me. "You can find them if you want and I guess that I can help out where I am able to."

"Thanks Har, I appreciate it." I calmed my breathing and smiled at him, however my breathing slightly picked up again when I saw Harry smiling back at me.

"Don't thank me for something I was planning on doing anyway."

***

Though we already saw the crime scene photos, Harry and I made the executive decision to still go to the actual crime scene since there may be something there that CSI may have missed. Even if it's unlikely, it wouldn't hurt.

The door was open, I'm guessing that was how it had originally been. Obstructing the middle of the doorway there were strips of yellow crime scene tape preventing intruders and contamination.

Harry, being the athletic one, was able to easily manouver around the tape to get inside.

And then there was me. With the weight gain around my mid-section, I was not able to do any such thing.

With a small smile on his face, Harry took down enough tape so that I was able to walk beneathe it.

A bit red in the ears and face, I chose not to say anything. Instead I went over to the apparent blood stained carpet.

"There's not much spatter, so the wound was directly bleeding onto the floor. What little splatter there is, is around the main pool, so there was an impact... I'm guessing this person was shot in the foot from far range. The bullet should have exited the foot, so we can assume that it was picked up. The perpatrator was thinking ahead." I immediately began thinking out loud.

Harry nodded, "okay, I agree sort of. The only thing that I think differently is that this person was probably shot in the toe. There would be a lot more blood if it was the general foot area."

"I suppose that, I agree with that. This person is a good shot, was probably standing in the doorway. They knew how to control the people around them, so he shot the man who seemed like he was in charge. I feel that this person could potentialy be a hunter." I looked up at Harry, but noticed how uncomfortable the floor was, so I got up from where I was kneeling.

"Or just someone who has been shooting for a very long time." Harry pointed out as he assisted my getting up.

"I bet you one secret that the person is a hunter," I placed my bet and looked at him with a raised brow, daring him to do so as well.

Harry squinted his eyes at me, "and I bet two that he isn't."

"Then it's a deal... now how about we get back to the case..." I turned to look outside the doorway at their empty driveway. "They needed a way to transport seven hostages and themself."

"Good point," Harry nodded in agreement.

"So we're probably looking for a van of sorts. This person probably wouldn't have been driving a white van, that'd just be too obvious and they're smart... to a degree."

"Also true, why don't we ask the neighbors if they saw anything."

"There's a teenager living here right?" I suddenly brought up as I turned to look at Harry for confirmation. When Harry verified my question to be true, I continued my thought process, "it'd be wise to get their internet history then."

"Good call, teens these days usually tend to be a bit risky while on the internet." Harry pointed out.

"We'll contact their internet provider or even get tech in here to hack into their computers." I suggested.

"Well I say let's do it then." Harry rubbed his hands together jokingly and I rolled my eyes, but grinned at him nevertheless.

***

Several neighbors did, in fact, see an unfamiliar dark blue minivan parked in front of the Preston's driveway yesterday, but since they had family over they assumed that it was from a family member.

Harry got a couple people from our NYPD tech department to override the computers' passwords to allow us in. Being the brainiacs, they were able to do it right from their office chairs.

The laptop in, presumably, the father's office had nothing but business work on it, so it was virtually clean, with the average porn website in the deleted history.

The desktop in the living room was clean as well with only websites that lead to youtube, computer games and ask.com. In the files, there were past research papers, family pictures, and downloaded music.

However, on the last computer, the laptop in the teenager's room, there were deleted links that led to adult chat rooms and porn websites as well.

In one off the chatrooms, it showed how he was consistantly chatting with a woman with the username Doll_House_29.

From her profile, she seemed like a teennager, however, from her terminology, references, and questions, she was definitely an adult posing as a teenager. I guessed that the '29' in her username was her actual age.

"Harry, jackpot," I said sadly.

"Okay," Harry briefly skimmed over the discussions. "Why don't you get tech to find the I.P. address of this woman." Harry suggested.

I nodded and called the head tech number.

"Yeah, hey Henry, this is Officer Louis Tomlinson again. I need you to pinpoint an I.P. address."

Thirteen minutes later, Harry and I were informed that the I.P. address had originated in Alaska.

"Definitely a hunter," I turned to look at Harry with a look of triumph.

"You cannot say that for certain until we actually get our kidnapper." Harry stated with a hint of uncertainty, something that I don't associate with Harry.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that he wouldn't admit defeat so easily.

But little did he know that neither would I.

"What do we do Harry?" I sighed out of sudden exhaustion.

"Want to go to Alaska?"

"Honestly, not before lunch. Airplane food sucks around this time of the year, so I've heard from Alice."

"What kind of person would I be to deprive you of your basic human right of food?" Harry laughed.

***

"So Alaska," Harry looked at me as I dipped another french fry into my McDonald frosty, a taste that I have accquired over the past couple of weeks.

"What about it?" I asked, taking a sizeable bite out of the now soggy french fry.

"How do you plan on solving this?" Harry asked.

I shook my head, "honestly no idea. We could try alerting their local police, but in any case, we may need to actually go there... that'll take a while to do by car. I was copletely joking earlier about the plane ride, because how the heck are we going to get tickets on such short notice?"

"We won't have to do either actually. Since I'm FBI, we have access to a personal jet."

"WHAT!?"

***

I've never been on an airplane let alone a jet and lets just say that I could've lived without the experience.

Rarely do I ever get sick, but while being on this private plane, I've thrown up more times than I've thrown up in my whole life.

No joke.

I haven't even left the bathroom since we've taken off.

After the first few times I puked, I got fed up with Harry helping me out because he was the whole reason for my whole situation.

But now that the flight is almost over I am feeling super weak and definitely can't stand upright at the moment.

So, I did the one thing that I could do.

"HARRY!" I called out.

Harry opened the door in less than two seconds and placed his hand at my back. "I'm sorry that I forced you to go on this flight. I honestly thought that it'd turn out better than this."

"Just help me up," I dismissed his apology.

Harry scrambled to place his hand at my side to assist me.

"Never. Again. Styles." I gritted out.

***

(P.o.V. Switch)

3rd person p.o.v.

"Why don't you set the table Ada," the woman said, a glazed-over crazy look in her eye as she turned to look at the youngest of the family.

Whimpering, the girl turned to look at her crying mom, silent dad, and passed out grandad, not knowing if she should listen to this stranger.

"G-go ahead Ada." Her mom spluttered through her tears, knowing that any other answer wouldn't get them anywhere.

Again Ada whimpered before hetting up onto shaky legs to repeat the previous night's tasks.

"Good girl," the woman spoke encouraging words, sitting across from the rest of the family.

"Ex-excuse me ma'am, but where's C-Carter?" Ada, Olly, and Carter's Aunt asked the question that the mother wanted to ask herself but could not find the strength to.

"I am Carter," the woman smiled, unzipping the boy sweater to reveal Carter's clothes beneathe it. "See?"

"No you aren't!" The mother spoke this time, sadness acting as a fuel for her anger.

"Yes I am!" The woman yelled back, slapping the latter's cheek.

That quickly silenced her yet again.

"T-table's set." Ada came back into the room with a quivering lip, having heard the resounding slap.

"Thank you Ada," the woman replied.

At the dinner table, everyone was forced to sit in a designated seat with the smiling maniac woman in between the mother and father as the family ate around her.

***

(Back to Louis' p.o.v.)

"Remind me the name of their son," I asked Harry from where I was laying in bed, referring to the current case at hand.

"Olly?" Harry asked, referring to the younger son.

"No not him, the teenager."

"Oh him! Carter, you mean." Harry corrected himself.

"Yeah him. I really like that name. I'd especially like that name if I were to have a son." I said, lost in thought.

Harry didn't answer verbally and instead climbed in bed next to me. His fingers ran through my hair soothingly, "don't worry we'll find him alive." He promised me after awhile.

"I hope you're right." I mumbled.

"Feeling better?" Harry asked, changing the upsetting subject.

"Yeah I guess." I murmered, leaning into his touch.

"Good, we can get into our investigation tomorrow then," Harry reasoned, I groaned and hid my face in his shoulder.

"But I want to continue our investigation today."

"Not happening," Harry chuckled. "Tomorrow should be time enough."

***

Harry woke up before me, claiming to have gotten a call from Simon right before waking me up and I didn't get the call since Harry turned my phone off due to the fact that I wasn't feeling well.

Simon had said that the woman logged back into the chat site, which allowed for tech to accurately pinpoint where the signal was coming from.

Since not many places here in Alaska have WIFI, they were able to narrow down the location to the local public library.

So, Harry and I travled two hours through forest foliage to get to the town.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we rode a 4-wheeler to get there?

Well we did.

Boy did I hold on tight to Harry.

I'm sure that he didn't mind... much.

The signal was obviously lost long before Harry and I got there, because I guess Alaskans don't feel the need to stay on their electronics for more than two hours.

So the moment we got to the town, I ate.

A lot.

Afterwards Harry and I went to the local PD (which stands for police department for you ninnies who didn't know) and told them about our case.

They agreed to help.

So that's basically where we are right now.

"What would you suggest us doing, Tomlinson?" the deputy asked.

"About how many people would you say actually live in this town, sir?" I decided to ask so that I can make a plan as to what exactly we should do next.

"Not many, maybe fifty or so, but people come and go in the library 'cause it's public. People don't really need a library card to use the computers either."

I hummed in thought, "this person is compulsive and planned this all out quite well. This insinuates that they've probably done this before... we should still interview the women of this town just in case. Any woman over the age of twenty five I'd say. If someone sticks out, then they do. If not, then oh well. At that point we're basically back to where we started."

"Sounds good to me." Came his simple reply.

Twenty interviews later, we didn't find anyone who stuck out.

I sighed and tiredly laid back onto Harry and I's shared bed.

"Ugh my feet are killing me," I groaned as I placed my hands over my face, tilting my head upwards.

Cooing, Harry helped me remove my shoes and I sighed in relief.

"Wow, you're feet are pretty swollen," Harry observed when he took my socks off. "Think it's from your leg injuries?"

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"Do they hurt much?" Harry asked, gently placing my leg dwn on the bed.

"Extremely," I groaned.

Harry hummed and carefully yet skillfully dug his thumbs into the sole of my right foot.

I inhaled sharply at the pain, yet knew that it was somewhat helping. "Isn't ice for swelling?" I decided to ask anyway.

"Well yes, but I really don't think that this hotel has any." Harry pointed out.

Rolling my eyes, I let Harry continue his ministrations until I fell sound asleep.

***

I woke up with a start and pushed on Harry's shoulder to wake him up, "Har, I have an idea. Wake up!"

Groaning, Harry turned to face me, "what's it Lou?" He asked without even opening his eyes.

"Lets have tech search for any missing family cases that went over the border and originated on that same chat site."

"Lou, you can do that." Harry said, sounding sort of unimpressed and grumpy from me interrupting his sleep.

"Not necessarily. Depending on how far back, the woman still has those families. If she felt the need to take another family that means the first family probably didn't satisfy her needs..." I trailed off, hoping Harry would be able to connect the very same dots that I had been able to connect in my sleep.

"So..."

"Where are the bodies? It might be a strech, but she could have killed them, which is why those families haven't turned up yet. What better place to bury someone than here in Alaska where there's always snow? I'm starting to think that this woman doesn't always live here because she still has to go into town, but when she is here she lives in a secluded place. It has to be somewhere sheltered, so probably farther from town." I elaborated.

"Okay, I'll bite," Harry opened his eyes and placed his hands behind his head in a lacsidaisical kind of way. He stared up at me with tired eyes. "So you can't call Simon because?"

"I need to search for sed house with the local PD and I also need something to eat." I stood up, "no arguing."

So, I marched straight to the department (after eating and getting ready of course (exactly in that order)) and proposed my theory to the deputy since we had ran out of facts.

"You know, that sounds a lot like Celia... she's an entrapenuer who's just starting to get somewhat big. For advertising, she travels all over, but in the end returns here to her cabin in the mountain when she has the time."

***

Carter was dead.

I did not cry at all for a family that wasn't even mine, though for some reason I felt that I should be crying.

The grandfather has frostbite in his foot from where it's been exposed to the harsh mountain temperatures. They tried to keep it from bleeding out, but it didn't help with the frostbite for his foot to be exposed. In their situation, that was all that they could do.

It had to get amputated when they got to the hospital.

Everyone else was very upset, though physically unharmed.

Beneath the dirt at the base of the mountain, we found four mass graves, each one contained an entire dead family.

"I just wanted a family that could love me." Celia sobbed as we cuffed her.

I called her bluff. "You were just doing what you couldn't do to your own family."

She was eerily silent after that, yet the silence spoke volumes.

"You were repeating what you did to your own family... you fucking bitch." I spoke harshly as the realization hit me.

All Celia did was smile.

***  
"You know that you technically don't win right?" Harry stated, speaking of our bet.

"Oh? And why not?" I asked him, hands on my hips.

"Because technically she didn't hunt to survive since she technically didn't live in Alaska, so she can't be labled as a hunter, but she didn't not hunt." He went on to explain.

"Okay then, how's this..." I trailed off as I thought up an alternative. "We each get a secret from each other, which we can use at any time we like." I proposed.

Harry nodded, "not bad, I'm down with it."

"Good then," I smiled and placed a quick peck on Harry's lips. However, he smirked and just as quickly pulled my back to him and forced my lips to stay on his.

***

"Remind me the names of your family members?" Harry asked from where he sat behind my desk.

I woud tease him about him not knowing yet another thing, but decided against it as this was quite important. "Jay Tomlinson. Daisy Tomlinson. Phoebe Tomlinson. Felecite Tomlinson. And..." I trailed off, "that's all."

Ten minutes.

That's how long it took for Harry to look up each of their names.

Afterwards, he looked up sadly to me.

"They're not here, none of them are, Lou."

I felt my heart break just a little bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I'll try updating in two weeks, we'll see what actually happens. 


	13. Part Two: The Harshness of Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Enjoy the double update! ;)

"Louis, you're on morning patrol duty-" Simon said as he assigned us our tasks for the day.

"But why? Isn't there a case-" Simon cut me off just as I had done to him previously.

"-Since a case hasn't come in for you yet." He continued.

At the time, I had figured it'd be okay since I'd be in the car with Harry for hours on end.

"Oh, and Harry," Simon continued, "patrol duty as well, but you're going to be patrolling separately from Louis."

Shocked, I immediately fired back, "but what about my legs? I haven't exactly been cleared to drive yet!"

"Believe me, I'm completely aware. That's why I want you to try hanging out with a different partner. You and Harry must be getting sick of eah other by now." That, from what I could tell, was a joke. "I'm pretty sure you have stockholm syndrome from living with him for more than a whole year..."

Harry chuckled and grinned slightly afterwards, "it's okay Lou, us cool kids can hang out later. Besides, I'll be working more on our side cases as well," Harry said referring to finding my family more than likely.

As unsure as I was, I gave my regretful "okay."

***

And basically, that was how I got stuck... in a car... with a complete stranger!

After the whole Niall incident I don’t go around trusting random people with my life, well that is unless if your name is Harry Edward Styles. You know, even with Zayn I didn’t trust him entirely because of how he treated me.

Unfortunately for me, this particular parnter didn’t even try to break the ice as he just kept to himself rather than socializing. Sure that is sort of what I wanted, but even still, it makes it that much more awkward.

I turned on the radio since I was the one driving (much against the doctor’s orders) and turned it to my first preset station. Immediately, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol came on, so I instinctively turned it up, not caring about my 'partner's' thoughts on the sound.

After a few moments, this d-bag spoke up. “Hey, could you turn that down? This isn't really my favorite song.”

“Nope.” I answered. He didn’t say anything in return, turning to look outside instead.

A little girl came into my view. She seemed younger than ten, and she was casually walking her way out of a store with the occasional suspicious glance over her shoulder. I don’t know what it was or what told me to go after her, but I did.

Two secconds later the siren of a police car could be heard in the distance that wasn’t mine and the girl’s wide eyes looked behind her before she took off running down the street.

Not sure what I was getting myself into I, in turn, turned on my siren and drove after her.

“What the Hell are you doing? You need to turn here!” My partner exclamed.

“Shut up,” I simply said and turned down the same alley way that the girl did. I quickly parked in an awkward fashion so that I was parallell to the alley way, blocking off her exit, and I jumped out of the car.

“Hey!” My partner yelled after me as he also got out of the car by crawling over the console.

Ignoring him, I ran after the girl to the end of the alley where she was inevitably trapped. “Come with me and you’ll be okay,” I assured her, holdding out my hand. As hesiant as she looked, she reached her hand out anyway. Just as she was about to put her hand in mine, the police car with the sirens on parked on the other side of my car and the girl withdrew her hand.

“It’s okay, I won’t let them touch you,” I promised.

“Mi mama,” the girl spoke, eyes fillng with tears.

“I’ll help you find her if you take my hand.” She took my hand as footsteps approached behind us and I turned to see a familiar face.

“Harry?” I said just as he said “Louis?”

***

The girl ended up in the interrogation room while we waited for a social worker and a translator to show up.

"Louis, why the Hell were you driving!?" Harry finally exploded when we were alone. "You know how badly that could have ended up!"

"Calm down Harry, I'm okay." I reassured him for the umpteenth time, he had said the exact same thing while we were in the car driving, when we got out of the car, and now even moreso that we're at the police department.

"But you could have not been. Why were you driving anyway!?" He raised his voice again, seeming unable to calm himself.

"Because the guy didn't offer to drive," I said honestly.

"And you couldn't have spoken up!?"

I rolled my teary eyes. I honestly don't know what it was, but right now something about getting yelled at rubbed me the wrong way so I couldn't help the fact that my eyes had teared up.

"Lou, are you okay?" Harry asked gently now.

Embarassed that I caused for such the one eighty in his mood, I decided not to answer and turned the opposite way so I could make my way to the bathroom.

Thankfully, Harry didn't follow me since he had to be there for when the translator and social worker arrived.

***

Approximately seventeen minutes later, I was sitting with puffy eyelids next to a concerned and guilty looking Harry and we were sitting across from a worried little girl, a steely gazing social worker, and a tired looking translator.

I instantly knew that this was going to go great.

"Could we start with why this child is even here right now?" The social worker asked.

"Sure." Harry began. "This girl stole from a mini-mart."

The translator translated.

"And your witnesses?" He asked again.

"The cashier and nine other people shopping there. Oh and I am sure that a camera caught her in the act as well."

The translator translated.

During this whole line of questioning from the social worker, the girl kept her eyes on me and I on her.

"So do you have anything to say Officer Tomlinson, or are you just going to let your partner here do all the talking?"

I ignored the staunch man and asked the girl a question, "what is your name?"

"Teresa Mansualo," the girl, Teresa, answered softly.

"That is a beautiful name. Do you remember what you said in the alley?"

The translator translated then Teresa nodded.

"Why did you bring up your mom?"

The girl shrugged.

"Then why did you come with me when I said that I'd help you find her?" I asked. "Is she lost?"

"I'm the lost one," the translator spoke for Teresa.

"This girl's mother needs to be found right away!" The social worker exclaimed.

"Sir, we're already running her face through our missing children's database, now that we have a name that will be ran through it as well." Harry continued speaking.

"Teresa where's your mom?" I asked.

"Yo no se," She spoke.

Even I know what that meant and I failed Spanish. I think this was the one phrase that I actually know.

"I don't know," the translator spoke.

I noticed that the the translator hadn't had the chance to translate my question that time.

"Teresa, can you understand what we're saying without the translator?"

"Si, mas o menos. Pero puedo solamente comprender cuando una persona esta hablando en ingles."

"Yes more or less. But I can only understand when a person is talking in English. As in she can't speak it fluently," the traslator spoke.

"Okay. That makes sense as to how you were able to understand me in the alley. Can you tell me how you have come to understand English yet you can't speak it? This may be important."

"I've been living in this country for three years and I knew some English even before that so my understanding of the language only grew."

"You're a very smart girl then. Where were you before you were in this country?"

"No idea, just somewhere not here."

"The fact that she can understand us well shows that she's been exposed to English since at least the age of two since that's the early learning stages. However, she was never required to speak it which is why she can't speak it." I pointed out.

"Okay, so now we're getting somewhere!" The social worker exclaimed.

At that moment my stomach began to rumble, making me aware of the fact that it was well past lunch time.

"How about we break." Harry suggested, looking at me.

The social worker sighed in exhasperation, "right when we were getting somewhere."

"Yo tengo hambre tambien," Teresa cut in.

"I am hungry as well," the translator translated.

"I'll get you some food, what would you like?" I asked.

"Tamales por favor," she said quietly.

"Tamales please," the translator translated, even though at that point it wasn't really required

***

"I'm sorry about yelling earlier," Harry apologized, breaking the silence simulaneously.

"It's fine." I shrugged nonchalantly and took another bite out of my burrito.

"No it's not fine, Lou, I made you so upset that you cried. You never cry. No one should ever make you feel that way, not even me."

I shook my head, "it's okay Harry, I really don't mind it. I'm not even all that upset about it right now. At the time I was just being over-emotional."

"It was nice of you to buy her the tamales by the way, but I think that four are more than enough for her," Harry chuckled.

"I don't want her to starve Harry."

"I understand Lou, but you don't want her to stuff herself sick either."

"I'm not plnaning for her to eat them all at once, she could always save them for another meal of course."

Harry smiled fondly at me, "of course."

I smiled back at him, "I really missed you smiling at me like that when I was away..." I trailed off.

"I really missed you while you were away..." Harry trailed off.

"I'm sorry that I left," sniffled.

Surprised by my reaction, Harry wrapped his arms around me and I leaned my head against his collarbone.

"Don't cry again Lou," Harry said quietly. "You're making me feel bad."

"O-kay," I hiccupped, salty tears already making their way down my cheeks.

***

Once again, I was sitting with puffy eyes next to a concerned Harry and across from an eating Teresa, a stoic social worker, and a sleepy translator.

"From your name and facial features, we were able to find you in a database. It wasn't our database, but it was the Mexican database. I... your house was broken into one night and your dad as killed. You and your mom were missing from the scene." I spoke, even though I really didn't feel like doing so.

Teresa stopped what she was doing to look at me.

"Yo se." Teresa paused.

"I know, the translator spoke up, waiting for Teresa to continue. "I remember that now that you said that... some men took my mother and I."

"Some men... do you remember what they looked like? If I got a sketch artist in here right now could you explain to them how they looked like?"

Teresa nodded and the translator nodded, "after that day, I saw their faces nearly everyday of my life up untiil when I got here. It tool awhile for me to remember, but now that I do, I'm going tot make sure that they pay."

Teresa's face, though young, was a face that held years of experience and a level of seriousness.

"Okay, I will get that sketch artist in here then. You and the translator are going to be te only two people staying in here. My partner, the social worker, and I will all be leaving." I spoke as I stood up.

Though he was flabberghasted, the social worker stood and walked with Harry and I.

"Why didn't you ask her anymore questions on what those men did?" An angry social worker asked.

"Because it's obvious that she has repressed memories. When accessing those memories, you want to do so slowly and carefully otherwise she could crack. I know that I don't want that to happen and I hope that you feel the same." I answered as calmly as I could.

The man rolled his eyes.

"Oh, and as a side note, you are a social worker, not her lawyer. Start acting like one or else I'll have someone else to take over your job," I threatened.

With a hint of fear in his eyes, the man stormed off nonetheless.

"You handeled that well," Harry placed a relaxed hand at my side.

"Thanks... I just... I just want the best for this girl," I answered honestly as I stared at her through the glass window.

"I know everyone here can tell that," Harry looked down at me and his other hand came to my cheek to wipe away a stray tear that had fallen there. "What's up with you today? This is the third time and I'm really starting to get worried."

"I honestly don't know," I sniffled and pressed the heels of my palms over my eyelids.

"Maybe it's just this case."

"Yeah, hopefully that's it," I nodded.

***

From the sketches, we were able to track down the men since they were in our database as escaped criminals.

Let's just say they're good at not being caught, but not good enough at hiding.

When we got to the warehouse, we found the bodies of three dead Mexican women, two dead children, eight tied up women, and three alive children.

Teresa's mother was among the barely alive women what were tied up.

All the women were returned back to Mexico, even the dead bodies.

Teresa went along with her mother, bringing the tamales with her.

When the store owner heard about what she had to go through, the charges against her were dropped (I made sure of that).

I cried when she hugged me before she left.

Hopefully, I cried for the last time in awhile.

Today had been a good day

***  
"You owe me a secret by the way," I pointed out.

"Trust me, I'm aware. You going to use it now?" Harry asked. "You still owe me a couple of secrets as well, but I don't play on using them today."

I shook my head, "me neither, I'm saving mine for a rainy day." I winked at him.

Harry hummed, "smart. I expect nothing less from you." With a chuckle, Harry opened the door to our house and held it open for me.

I walked into the darkness, taking off my coat first as Harry turned in the light.

When he did, I gasped to see party decorations set up all around the living room.

"Harry you didn't," I turned to look at him.

"Oh I did Lou," Harry smiled at me warmly.

"Happy birthday Lou."

Sniffling, I wrapped my arms around Harry, "thank you so much Har."

Instead of hugging back, Harry gently placed his large hands at my elbows to push me back lightly.

Confused, I furrowed my brow, but I felt tears fill my eyes as Harry got down onto a knee.

"'Arry," I whimpered.

"Louis, I know that I may not know what love is, per say, but I know that when you get married you do it with someone you care about and I care about you so much. I want to spend the rest of my life with only you because you're so important to me. That is what it means to be married, right? I can try to learn to love you, I know that I'm not a lot, but that's all that I can offer you." Harry opened a ring box, presenting it to me.

Sobbing, I got down onto my knees and hugged Harry tightly.

"Is it a yes?" Harry asked lightly as he stroked my back with intention.

All I could do was nod into his neck before Harry slipped the ring onto my awaiting finger.


	14. Part Two: Positive

My stomach heaved long past its emptying point.

The only time I've thrown up this badly was on the airplane, but before that was when Felecite had gotten me sick.

Harry rubbed my back, "are you okay Lou?"

"I've nev-er r-re-acted so badly to some b-body partss. I do-n't know wh-what it is, but this case just feels sso diff-erent," I said hoarsely and shakily.

"Louis, they're not just some body parts, it's a severed woman's head that's missing her eyeballs. You're inclined to feel a little nauseated."

"But Har, I was able to deal with that one case with Niall. You know the one I'm talking about, the one with the two skinned and decaying bodies involved. So what's the difference here? This isn't even a whole body!" I exclaimed.

"You are." Harry spoke softly as he gave me a tissue to wipe my mouth. "You're the one who's different. Before all this you were closed off, but now you care that much more because you've allowed yourself to feel more freely."

While he was talking, I took the chance to wipe my mouth. As I did so, my engagament ring caught my eye as it glinted in the faint sunlight peeking through the clouds pregnant with percipitation.

Surprised by my sudden silence, Harry followed my gaze to see what had caught my eye. When he saw my ring, he brushed his thumb over the simple band which caused for his own band to purposely and lightly clink against my own.

I smiled, anxiety forgotten.

"Should get a chain for this while we're working," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah," I nodded in agreement. Something cold and wet landed on my cheek and I looked up at the sky expecting rain yet snow flakes fell onto my face. I turned to look back at the crime scene, "hurry with processing the scene! The snow will contaminate the crime scene!" I yelled out to everyone.

Everyone hurried with whatever the Hell they were doing.

"Sir!" Someone yelled as they ran up to me, a small piece of paper in their gloved hand.

"What is it?" I questioned, reaching my hands into my pockets to grab my own pair of latex gloves and slipped them onto.

"It's a message from the killer," he spoke even though he had handed the paper to me by then.

"The apple of my eyes," I read out loud.

"Eye is plural..." Harry noted as he trailed off.

"It is," I nodded. "Maybe it's a clue to find her eyes."

"Couldn't agree more," Harry nodded.

I hummed, "it's interesting how they used this phrase... it's endearing and a compliment. I'm thinking that the victim was probably close to her killer."

"A killer husband definitly isn't uncommon." Harry validated.

"Well, let's get to it then."

***

"And you're one-hundred percent sure that you're okay for this Lou?"

"Yes Harry, I am. Don''t you trust me?"

"Is that even a question?" Harry snorted.

"Then trust me to do this... Harry remember our case with the Keplers?"

"How could I forget? The famous Madison Kelpler killed with her mother and brother to blame. Oh what a scandal." Harry lightly joked.

"Do you remember what you said about wanting to help with me excercising my legs?"

"I do," Harry nodded. "Are you finally going to take me up on my offer?"

"Yeah, actually, but just after this case, okay?"

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. There's no backing out now."

I chuckled, "please, when do I ever back down from a challenge?"

***

Twenty minutes later, we recieved a call from Simon.

"Louis and Harry, get to 'The Big Apple' resturaunt ASAP. I'll text you both the address. We just got a call from a very hysterical worker there reporting to have found a pair of eyes in the supply closet."

***

Five minutes later, Harry and I arrived at the resturaunt, which had at least twenty angry customers sitting outside requesting refunds for the unserved food. However, that crowd thinned out when they caught sight of us.

"Who would have access to this closet?" I asked.

"Well anyone really. There are no cameras to monitor this area since it's so close to the bathrooms. The lock on the door doesn't even work and I was working on getting it fixed before next weekend with the health inspector coming by and all." The manager rambled on.

"Okay," I slowly nodded. "Have there been any suspicious customers recently?" I asked.

The manager laughed at that, "it's the City, everyone looks suspicious here."

I sighed at the helplessness that began to fill me, however, I decided to push it down. "Thank you for your time, my... partner willl continue to question you then." I motioned for Harry to continue, which he did.

Instead, I walked over to the crime scene in the closet.

Sure enough, on the very top shelf of the cleaning supplies there were a cloudy pair of eyes.

From the smell alone of heavy cleaning products mixed with blood and rotting flesh, my head started to spin.

However, upon actually seeing the scene and how perfectly normal yet morbid it looked, my stomach heaved twice.

A person grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around to face them.

I was surprised to find Alice there, "hey Louis, you don't need to go in there, okay? How about you focus on not making yourself sick again, yeah?"

Clearing my throat, I nodded, "yeah.... have you... or anyone else found a note yet?"

Alice nodded, "yes actually, it's in an evidence bag already."

"Okay, thankss Alice." I grinned at her and walked to the cooler where we kept the evidence bags.

I opened the cooler and took out the marked evidence bag. With careful steady fingers, I opened the sealed bag and took the small paper out with gloved hands.

"My center of the heart." I read aloud quietly to myself.

"He switched the and my," I heard Harry's voice over my shoulder.

Humming, I reread the sentence. "You're right. All the phrases so far have been ones you'd use for someone you love, or admire at the very least... They could have very much been a couple or something like that, which you have proposed already.

"Think it's another clue?" Harry asked.

"Obviously," I snapped and sighed afterwards, "sorry."

"It's okay, you're allowed to be frustrated." Harry snaked his arms around my midsection and instanly fear struck me as he pressed down slightly in confusion.

"Lou..." Harry trailed off.

I shook my head and quickly broke out of his hold.

"Something's going on, maybe Lawrence should check it out." Haarry suggested.

I bristled when he brought up my doctor, "No, I'm fine." I insisted instead.

"Lou, what if it's a tumor or something?"

"I'll think on it," I said just to get him out of my business.

"The heart... maybe he's referring to the heart of the City since he's already referred ot the City once before..." Harry suggested.

"I guess, but for everyone the heart of the city could be different..." I trailed off.

"Well what's the heart of the city for you?" Harry asked, "I haven't really been around the city long enough to judge as such."

I hummed, "well... besides to PD... I'd probably have to say Central Park. Everyone who goes to the city has probably been there one time or another."

***

"Well you were right," Harry sighed as I pulled on my latex gloves yet again.

Alice began to bag the torso of a clothed female body, one that more than likely matched the rest of the body parts found.

"Unfortunately," I sighed. "Time to search for another fucking clue."

As predicted, I found a small strip of paper with yet another phrase. "Events, I cannot leave." I read the simple message out loud.

"Only four words," Harry voiced his thoughts across. "So these words are important to him for a reason."

I sighed, "yeah, but why? It makes no sensse at all!" I exclaimed.

"Lou, calm down. Look, maybe you should take a break to clear your head." Hrry proposed.

"I'd really rather not."

"And why's that?" Harry placed a hand at the small of my back.

"Because my head is clear already. All that's on my mind right now is this case, which is what's important."

"Then that's not exactly clear."

I rolled my eyes, "you know what Harry? Screw you."

***

My phone vibrated from my poket, breaking the silence that I had created wihle Harry drove.

I aswered the all, putting it on speaker.

"Hey Loius, get to Grand Central Station stat! An officer found duffel bag that has pair of arms legs inside!"  
Simon exclaimed.

I spared Harry a glance as he turned on the police sirens of his car... my car I mean.

"Wer'e on it right now Sir." I hung up.

***

"I don't fucking understand," I grumbled as I stared at the table now full of all the accumulated body parts.

Harry placed his hand at my back, "Lou, you've been alone here staring at the same body parts for hours. Maybe it's time you take a break." Harry suggested again.

I ignored his suggestions.

"And you're completely sure there wasn't another message?" I asked him instead.

"I'm absolutely sure, Lou, I checked the place myself. But do you really need one? Isn't the body enough?"

"There's literally no physical evidence on her Har. There aare no defense wounds, so she trusted this person very much. From the cut marks, one can tell that a sort of saw did this, which implies our person was very passionate and not clearly thinking so he did what seemed right at the rime," I said, each word build upon my agitatedness. "But that only tells us about the killer, not where to find him or who he is."

"Then try to identify her, how about you tell me what you know about our victim here," Harry suggested. "We can find the killer through the victim."

"Well the autopsy indicates she was suffocated... she eas in pieces, so she must've made the killer, probably her lover, mad. He projected that rage onto her, tearing her apart as she had torn him apart and he wanted everyone to know about it."

"Exactly, Lou. See you're doing such a good job I don't understand why you can't see that."

"But Har, this poor woman is dead, killed by her lover. We don't know who she is nor who her killer is... this case needs to be solved Har. It's only fair to her."

"That's why I'm telling you to go home. If you were at your top game you would see that it's not very common for a person living in the city to just readily have a saw. He probably doesn't live in the city or didn't kill her here. Have you thought to consider what kind of saw it was or where he would be to have access to a saw?"

"Well no..." I trailed off.

"Lou, why are you still here then?" Harry asked gently.

"Harry, I can't drive anyway remember?" I reminded him. "And you're staying here right?"

"That's why I volunteered to drive you," a voice spoke from the doorway. I turned to see Alice there.

"Alice," I warned.

"Don't Alice me," she in turn warned me that much more harshly.

I sighed, "seeing as there are two of you and one of me, I guess that there's no arguing." I removed my gloves based off procedure then tossed them into the garbage.

"Good then," Aice smiled.

"Bye Harry," I waved slightly before turning to walk towards Alice.

To my surprise, Harry spoke again, but not to say bye, "Lou wait."

I turned around and Harry quickly pulled me to him.

"I...I'm learning to love you Lou..." Harry said lowly as he held my hand up that held my engagement ring, circling around it as a reminder.

"I love you, Harry." I whispered.

Harry gently placed his lips against mine and I kissed back for a moment before remembering we weren't alone and I pulled away.

"Alice is here."

"I don't care," he winked at me. "Bye Lou. Feel better okay? I'll be home the moment I solve this."

"Okay," I said. "Bye Har."

***

"So Lou, you and Harry," Alice wriggled her eyebrows at me.

"Yeah... we're together just... don't tell anyone quite yet..." I trailed off.

"I understand that one," Alice nodded. She looked over to me and her eyes focused on my stomach for a moment, which made me uncomfortably wrap my coat that much tighter around myself. "You look pregnant."

I suddenly felt a hot blatant fear fill me at the possibility.

It shouldn't be possible... right?

I'm a guy and Harry's a guy, so it's not possible for me to get pregnant.

Only women can get pregnant...

Women...

I thought back to my misfortune of being turned into a woman by a gender bender only four months ago...

A lump formed in mythroat at the possibility since we hadn't used a condom then.

"Um," I cleared my throat when it shook, "well Harry said that it could possibly be a tumor... I was actually going to make a doctor appointment when I got home to get it checked out." I rubbed a hand over the swollen flesh of my stomah.

The mere thought that there could be a life form growing there caused my hands to shake.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

I paused a moment, "c-can you stop at the store real quick? It shouldn't take very long."

"Of course, anything for my best friend."

I wasn't able to answer because of the growng lump in my throat.

***

"Again, thanks for driving me home Alice."

"It's all good. I'm sorry I got lost a million times." Alice giggled. "Feel better soon."

"I will do my best." I forced a small smile.

"Good then. I love you 'kay?"

"Love you too Alice. Bye." I smiled a bit wider.

"Bye Louis."

The moment I shut the door, I immedietely dug through the plastic grocery bag, throwing the carton of eggs, flinging the butter, and tossing the milk which caused it to spilled when it cracked open.

All the way at the bottom of the bag I found the small box that I was looking for.

Exhaling shakily, I carried the box with me in the bathroom.

***

Five minutes later, I sat on the tiled floor staring at the test that harboured two pink lines.

I read over the instructions again.

/ One pink line is a negative.

Two pink lines are positive, in that case congratulatons, you're pregnant./

"No," I whimpered and cleared my throat.

"No," I said more foreceully and without thinking, I picked up the test and threw it into the toilet then flushed it as if it'd get rid of all my problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> QoTD: do you think it's a girl or boy?


	15. Part Two: Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> I know it's been awhile, but I've been through a lot and I really hope that everyone else is doing so much better than I am.  
> I've missed you guys so much!
> 
> Before reading this chapter, make sure you read the chapter before this one, it's definitely important for this one since this is a continuation of the last chapter.
> 
> QoTD: How are you guys doing?

Unfortunately for me, the test didn't go down the toilet, so I had to exert all my remaining energy into plunging the toilet to remove it.

"This can't be true," I shook my head and snatched the box of pregnancy tests from the counter.

After drinking a lot of water and waiting some, I proceeded to pee on the rest of the four pregnancy tests. Once I had finished and washed my hands, I started to nervously nibble on my thumbnail as I tried organizing my thoughts. "It's clearly a false positive.... I mean a-a false positive ha-has to happen every now and then... right?" There was silence for a moment before I continued more sure of myself, "yeah, of course they do."

Steadying my breathing, I flipped over the four pregnancy tests in my hand only to find that they all read positive.

I slid against the bathroom door to a sitting position on the floor in complete shock as I stared at the pregnancy tests; this isn't something that I can run away from, this life growing inside of me.

Tears cascaded in waterfalls down my cheeks as the reality of it all hit me.

My life is never going to be the same again.

***

With distant red rimmed eyes I stared at the soup in my bowl. At first I had entertained the thought of maybe eating a spoonful, however the closest I got was me just swirling around the soup with my spoon, unable to lift it any further. After a minute of the stirring I gave up and proceeded to just stare at the sliced carrots in the soup.

I could feel Harry's eyes on me from beside me during the whole exchange with the food in my bowl.

I continued staring at my food... maybe if I don't eat it'll kill whatever the Hell is inside of me. Instant guilt and sadness hit me as an unexpected sob escaped my sealed lips and I tilted my head further downwards so that I had a view of my bulging belly, no longer to see my lap. The emptiness in my eyes lessened, thoughts growing softer as I thought about the baby.

A quick hand was placed at my back the moment after i sobbed, but I was just as quick to swat the arm away, anger instantly returning at the touch.

"Lou what's-"

"Back off Harry," I gritted out menacingly and pushed out my chair. "Not hungry."

***

Later that evening, Harry and I were on the couch while watching The Walking Dead. I was leaning sleepily against Harry's as he ran his large fingers through my hair with one hand and played with my wedding ring using his other. I was careful to keep my stomach away from Harry, I know that he'd ask about it if he were to feel it; that's something that I just can't take right now.

Exhausted, turned my head into his neck and allowed for my eyes to droop closed.

"You're awfully quiet tonight, Love." Harry said carefully.

Even though his approach was subtle, every muscle in my body tensed as I froze up, knowing that this was going to escalate to a place that I wasn't ready to go.

I pulled away from his warmth, even going as far as to scoot over a bit to put some distance between us. "No I'm not," I crossed arms and kept my attention towards the t.v.

"What did I do wrong Lou?" Harry asked. When he saw that I wasn't going to respond, he turned the t.v. off and spoke again, sounding more helpless than before, "do you still want to get married to me?"

"Of course I do!" I quickly jumped to exclaim, turning adamantly towards him at his absurd question.

"Then what is it!?" Harry exploded.

I whimpered inadvertently from the intensity of his voice and inadvertently placed a hand over top my stomach.

His eyes went to that hand, "are you okay?" The intensity in his voice dropped drastically, instead being replaced with concern.

My trembling hands tucked themselves into my sweatshirt pocket that held all five of the positive pregnancy tests, I didn't trust to leave be anywhere else. I knew that I needed to take the chance to tell him then before this whole thing impacts our relationship anymore.

"I just... y-you really shouldn't have pushed me to have sex with you while I was a woman..." I pulled out all five of the positive pregnancy test from my pocket and handed them to him. "Two pink lines means it's positive and... and they're all positive."

"Lou... what are these?" Harry asked, voice scarily calm as he stared at the tests as if they were foreign objects to him.

"Pregnancy tests," I looked down.

"Thought so..." Harry trailed off in a murmur. "I shouldn't have forgotten a condom Lou. That's on me, this isn't your fault." Harry placed a hand on my shoulder and with the other he placed it under my chin then used it to tilt my head upwards. "But I... I need to tell you what I am and why your pregnancy is going to be dangerous."

I paled in on the word dangerous, which Harry seemed to notice, yet continued to explain.

"So... I am a naphalem, which is half angel and half demon. My mom was an angel who fell in love with a demon. God allowed my mom to stay in Heaven and give birth there, but afterwards she needed to leave because she had a forbidden love. Once I was born, the demon half was weaker than my angel half while I was in Heaven because I was surrounded by holiness and light was continually replenished within me. The demon half never had the chance to grow stronger. At nineteen, God banished me to Earth since I wanted to meet my real Dad. To me, God was my stepdad and he made a big mistake when he banished me. Now I'm not on the best terms with Heaven since they see me as succumbing to my lesser second half. I've been on this Earth for many years before I met you, but I just don't age because of what I am."

I noticed then that he had broken physical contact with me, his arms are crossed instead. I could tell that this was painful for him to recall and I now know why he kept this hidden for so long.

"Harry, I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. At least you have me now, right?" I extended my arm to place hand on his knee. His grave expression didn't change and he ignored my hand.

"That's sort of an issue though... I'm running out of light since I don't have a supply of it anymore. Pretty soon, I'm going to have no energy left to fight my demonic side... that's why my eyes turn red sometimes. More often than not, I find myself relying on my demonic powers instead because I literally have no choice. My light's almost gone and once it is completely gone, I don't want to hurt you... or the baby."

"Harry, you wouldn't hurt either of us on purpose." I exclaimed, fear filling me that he may force me to raise this child on my own.

"But I could indirectly... what if it turns out like me or even worse, a full on demon?"

"Harry, I really could care less. I care too much about you to just give up on you now, heck, I'm in love and we're getting married Har. We have a baby on the way now and if it does end up like that then we will figure out how to deal with it... I mean if you still want that..."

"How can I not want that? I'm learning to love you Lou. We can even take some time off when you're that much more bigger to take care of you and the baby."

Relieved and shaking, I hugged Harry as he hugged me back.

"Thank you Har, I really didn't want to do this alone." I whispered.

"I'd never allow that to happen, Lou." He whispered back.

***

"Hey Simon..."

"Hey Louis, everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just need to put in for some time off for after next month."

"Okay, for how long?"

"A year and a half," I said bluntly.

"Louis are you sure-"

"Just-!" I cut myself off, "I'm okay, can I take it off?"

Simon sighed, "Okay Louis, okay."


End file.
